


Learn When to Quit

by LutiasKokopelli



Series: Someday... you gotta get real. [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Breaking the Fourth Wall, Dorks, Even with Resets Everyone Has Déjà-Vu, Foreshadowing, Gen, Meta, Player-Insert, Plot Is Not What It Seems, Reality Bending, Reality Meets Fiction Plot, Red Herrings, References to Undertale Genocide Route, SAVING and Resetting, Sans (Undertale) Remembers Resets, Swearing, Temporary Character Death, The First Three Chapters Are Just an Introduction the Real Story Starts Later, Time Loop, Time Shenanigans, Trust Me The Beginning Is Boring Compared to How It Will Get In the Future, Unreliable Narrator, Video Game Mechanics, Worldbuilding, game canon, so Welcome to Continuity Hell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2019-10-12 16:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 114,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17471276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LutiasKokopelli/pseuds/LutiasKokopelli
Summary: * I thought I had warned you about that guy. “Don’t let him find out ANYTHING about you”, sounds familiar? … Oh, but that’s right! I forgot you NEVER listen. To you it was all just a game after all, wasn’t it?* Hee hee hee. Let me give you a little tip then:the Game is a Lie.* Echo Flowers repeat what they hear, babbling back and forth to each other until their words become meaningless noise.* What used to be the “truth”… soon becomes too distorted to appeal to anything you thought you knew.* Never trust a flower. That’s one of the constants of this world.After trying everything he could to stop time loops from ruining his life and universe, Sans has finally figured out the truth. As a last resort, he finds out that he has no more choice… but to ask for help.May 1st, 2016. Undertale has existed for half a year, and its fandom is raging at its full potential. But then, a Player disappears.





	1. Act I, Scene 1.0

**Author's Note:**

> This is a reboot of an old fanfic I had started in 2016. Seeing how it seemed to please so many people, I'm gonna do my best to improve it! The first version had a lot of flaws story- and character-wise, so hopefully, this will get better this time. That being said... Whether you are a new or old reader, I hope you will enjoy the ride!
> 
> Here's a small note about the plot: I love things such as double-entendres and foreshadowing, so you better believe there's gonna be a lot of it. Also [free indirect speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech) is way too much fun to play with so you've got one heck of a case of unreliable narrator in your hands, dudes.
> 
> Also, a small tip about how this story works: **I use a lot of very specific formatting**. So, you have a choice: for each chapter, you are provided with two links, that will just load the half of the AO3 page that you want to read. One half is a bunch of high-quality screenshots that contain the chapter in its originally intended formatting; the other is regular text, with the basic formatting that AO3 allows. It does its job, but it's not as beautiful (imo) as the original.  
>  **If you want to read the story with its original formatting but that AO3 won't load the images properly, I also provide you in every single chapter with links towards: 1) an online PDF version on Google Drive (which the screenshots are taken from), and 2) a link towards the tumblr post, where the chapter is also posted as screenshots.** You can see the chapter masterlists in [this Google Drive folder](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18Si5WDxlb0csRXqWXX1ueDQhtpwfMUBa?usp=sharing), or on [Tumblr (computer only)](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/masterlist).  
> If you're reading the screenshot chapters from a computer, the images may appear wider than you'd like. If so, you can enter window mode and reduce the width of your browser's window: the images should decrease in size as well without losing in quality.

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 1.0

###  [» Read the PDF version here! «](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hKIyJWyou6jWp2aouNvDptOwDdo7H181/view)

###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/183411459422/act-i-scene-10)

* * *

This is the main index where you can choose which way you wish to read the chapter.

Read via Screenshots Here (full formatting but may encounter loading issues)

Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


* * *

She’s still sleeping. Now is not the time! She’s alone in that stupid dark basement, and she’s sleeping. I guess the story can only start when she decides to wake up…

 

… That’s enough waiting.

 

She woke up in a start.

Before she could ponder what exactly had pulled her out of her sleep so swiftly, a more striking realization pushed this question out of her mind and monopolized her neurons: _Where was she?_

 

The simple answer was, a pitch black cellar; the one she went with was, _definitely not a place I know_.

 

A lot of stories are full of clichés. She had read a lot of novels, watched a lot of movies, and when the internet was taking such a big part in her life, even if at first she had not been particularly meaning to, after some point the knowledge of tropes and the genre-savvy attitude just became second nature to her.

 

So what, now? Well, the situation she was standing in was, one could say, a pretty reoccurring cliché.

 

She had no remembrance of ever walking in. Cliché.

There were no windows, no vents, and the only door available was locked. Cliché.

Her first reflex was to freak out for an amount of time she would have trouble calculating retrospectively, since by definition when you reach the state of a panic attack, you lose your grip on reality as well as any notion of time passing. The entire experience felt surreal because of its pure nonsensicality (she _clearly_ remembered spending her Sunday afternoon chatting online and locked inside her bedroom, so how did she even arrive here to begin with?), but still. That was cliché.

 

When she managed to come back to her senses and realize that panicking was going nowhere, she decided to ponder her options in order to actually calculate her next move in a _smart_ way. Cliché.

 

The first conclusion anyone with a minimum of common sense could muster at this point, was that she had _somehow_ been kidnapped, and that she probably had little time before her captor(s) came back. In just about any story she knew, this would be the moment the protagonist would switch to their badass mode and make a brilliant escape. Cliché.

 

She was not the protagonist of a stupid action movie and she had no ‘badass mode’, though. She would not leave by blowing the entire building up and putting on sunglasses while walking towards an imaginary camera because she’d be too cool to give a single look at what she would’ve done.

 

And yet, she quickly found out with great shock and awe that in the end, maybe she was still able to do _something_ : she _still_ had her cell phone in the back pocket of her jeans. _Granted_ , there was no reception in the room, so trying to call for help was out of the question; but still, wasn’t that supposed to be the _first_ thing kidnappers took away from their victims as soon as they had the chance?

 

Besides, she was not even roped or tied to any extent! If only she were able to pick the lock (a skill she, sadly, did not master), she would have easily been able to escape, at the very least from this room. _Maybe_ her captors were not that stupid and she would have found actual obstacles beyond the door, if she indeed managed to open it; but from what she had seen until this point, all the mistakes they made so far didn’t put them very high up on her personal Scale of Credibility.

 

That being said, even if her phone could not be used to call one of her relatives or the police, the wonders of technology led to purely brilliant results. Sometimes literally, as her phone’s torchlight immediately became a life savior in helping her figure out a little more details about the room she had been trapped in. And _dang_ , did she find a lot of stuff her kidnappers would _probably_ have preferred keeping away from her.

 

Whoever it was that had kidnapped her, _they_ _terribly_ _sucked at their job_. Part of her would be almost pitying them, if her life weren’t potentially on the line depending on which plans they had for her once they would come back.

 

So, now that she had the means to rediscover the room with her eyes, she recapped. She had been unconscious for some time, and when she woke up, she was lying on an old green jangling couch. Now that she was armed with her phone’s dim light, she looked at the ceiling and noticed that there were big neon lights; she immediately searched for the switch, but after it was found, she was disappointed to realize that flipping it up and down was useless.

 

… Apparently the lights were out of order. Just her luck.

 

After some wandering about with her phone as guidance, she found that besides the tiled floor and bluish walls, there were a lot of littering pieces of random machinery in the corners, a giant curtain in the furthest part of the room that was covering some kind of mysterious engine, and a giant desk. This last detail was what focused the entirety of her attention after that point, since she figured that it was the only thing that could give her _relevant_ hints.

The desk was buried under piles of random papers and notes, and although she had no idea what the writings and calculations were about, she assumed they were supposed to be parts of some kind of blueprints. She soon noticed a desk lamp, but then again, trying to turn it on had no effect at all. That was when she saw that instead of a lightbulb, a _torchlight_ had been taped on top of the lamp. After detaching it and trying to flip its switch, she smirked and hummed in satisfaction: _finally_ something worked the way she wanted it in this room.

Although she did not question it much further, the image of a flashlight being strapped to a desk lamp sent her remote flashes of recognition, as if she had already heard of such situation somewhere before. It was probably a coincidence, though. Nothing to worry about.

 

To her relief, she could now turn off her phone and save its battery, and thanks to this new flashlight’s powerful beam, her ability to investigate the surroundings became much more efficient. It wasn’t extraordinary, but it was definitely much better than her phone, since at least it had a wider and longer range.

 

Still… She was not done yet with the desk.

 

Indeed, finally she found, wait for it, a _computer_.

Her kidnappers had left her _all alone_ , _without supervision_ , with a _flipping **computer**_ right under her nose. Admittedly that one looked ancient, but still. Whatever little esteem she still held for their kidnapping skills quickly evaporated at that moment.

 

Then again, when she tried to switch it on, _obviously_ , it did not respond either. None of the electric equipment could be turned on, so she guessed that there _might_ be a general blackout in the building, and that _maybe_ the reason she had been left alone without supervision was because her captors went to wherever the main generator was so they could fix a problem they had clearly not anticipated.

 

How long had it been since she woke up? It was hard to tell, but maybe it was around ten to twenty minutes by now. Pretty long time to leave a captive unattended.

Then again, from what she had seen, these guys had no idea what they were doing. She could probably keep nosing around a little bit more. It was their fault for leaving her alone with all the material she needed to do so, after all.

The desk had a certain number of drawers. Deciding she had nothing better to do for the moment, she began to open the one on the far left, strategically intending to open them one after the other in a simple order.

 

In the first drawer, she found books… She thought she saw an album, too. When she opened it on the first page, she found a small photograph that hadn’t been properly put inside of the album and was probably there just to prevent it from being damaged. It was pretty small, around the size of a Polaroid, so she approached her hand so she could lift it and bring it closer…

 

Hey, wouldn’t it be a lot more fun if _this_ was the exact moment he came back?

 

She heard some ruffling at the door. Then went the tingling sound of a key rummaging through the lock.

 

They were back.

 

Not even bothering to close the drawer, she immediately turned around and looked for the safest place to hide— hopefully the giant curtain would do. At least long enough for her to find a more permanent solution.

 

The curtain ruffled and waved after her path.

After making sure that she could keep an eye on the only exit in the room, she turned the flashlight off.

The door opened.

 

To her surprise, the place right outside the door was just as dark as the room she was in. That helped her make herself less noticeable by hiding in the dark, but sadly, it meant that she would be completely blind as well. Still, she locked her eyes in the direction of the door, trying to keep a mental image of the surroundings and the different objects in the room, for lack of being able to keep sight of them.

 

Well, well, now _this_ is getting interesting and new…

Maybe it was worth the wait, after all. Just maybe.

 

She heard footsteps entering the room. They were slow and quiet at first, almost as if whoever they belonged to was trying to avoid making too much noise.

She heard them stop for a few seconds. Then she finally heard one of her captors’ voice.

“… oh boy. uh… hey, kid?” they called out to nowhere in particular. “i take it you woke up? sorry, i prolly should’ve prepared a note or something.”

 

That appeared to be a man, but there was a strange timbre in his voice that puzzled her deeply. It sounded almost like his voice was being muffled by something, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it and it didn’t really strike her as the most accurate explanation.

 

Given the manner the sound of his voice came to her in irregular volumes, she realized that he had to be turning his head in multiple directions and looking for her.

 

Which meant that he hadn’t found her yet.

 

“look, i probably spooked ya pretty badly earlier, but… i know you’re still here, and i won’t take long to find you, so, you can come out right now and save us both the trouble.”

 

Ha. He was already admitting defeat. That would be easy.

 

“i’m sure you have a lot of questions, right now. which is pretty convenient, ‘cause i have a lot of answers to give ya. we can just sit down and have a nice chat. no pressure. i mean, i know you must think that this situation’s way too weird and all, but you’re not in danger, a’right?”

 

 _Damn right I’m not in danger_ , she thought bitterly, rolling her eyes in contempt. She almost huffed in disbelief, but she managed to stop herself from doing that when she immediately realized that such irrelevant act would have given away her position in no time. Still, though, was that guy _stupid_? _Why the heck would you have kidnapped me, dumbass? To give me a hug?_

 

She tried to ignore the gullibility and foolishness in his words, instead focusing on how to take advantage of them. She could clearly hear his footsteps and locate him. He couldn’t locate her, but that was because she wasn’t moving or making any sounds. Yet.

She clearly remembered where the door was, and she clearly remembered that she had _not_ heard him close it. Which meant that if she could find just the right window in time and space…

All she had to do was assess a few distances and trajectories.

She would be patient. She would wait.

And then she would seize the moment.

 

The footsteps were now not too far from her, probably around five to ten feet away; but they were pretty far from the door. If she remembered right the disposition of the room, he had to be around the desk. Soon…

But then he stopped walking, and silence engulfed the room and left her in total blindness.

She waited, wondering what he was doing since he wasn’t anywhere near her to begin wi—

Something grabbed her arm.

 

“welp. found you.”

 

She screamed.

She yanked her arm away from him in a sudden yet strong movement that seemed to have left him stunned for a split second. Part of her was surprised by how easy it had been for her to elude his grasp, and by how physically _weak_ he had appeared to be in comparison with her — she almost thought she heard him wince in surprise and pain while taking a few steps back, when she had raised and sent her arm flying around without warning.

However, that part of her went completely unnoticed by the others when adrenaline enhanced her reflexes and blinded her thoughts.

 

Hardly a second after her arm was freed, she took action again. Turning towards him swiftly, she pressed a button and brandished the flashlight at him like a deadly weapon. She immediately heard an additional grunt from the stranger, as he was momentarily blinded by the torch’s unexpected Powerful Beam. It’s super effective!

 

… Or not. But it’s enough for the stupid girl to smirk in victory. What’s she thinking, that she’s the hero beating up the bad guys or that she’ll make a brilliant escape with that stupid stick? Besides, this is basically stealing. But who am I to judge, eh?

 

 _Ha, take that!_ she mentally grinned. _Next time, don’t leave dangerous weapons lying around, you jerk._

 

Although he took a few more steps back and now stood right by his desk, and although he kept rubbing his eyes with his left hand for a few more seconds, the victim of her harmless attack had a rather quick adaptation to the new brightness of his surroundings. And as soon as he lowered his pale arm, the girl couldn’t help but slightly lower hers as well, now facing the stranger with a blank expression.

 

“… heh. already throwin’ in the spotlights, kid?” he chuckled lightly. “i didn’t realize you’d want to get enlightened on the truth so soon. ‘specially since, uh. you didn’t seem so interested by my brilliant idea a minute ago.”

 

Upon realizing who it was… Actually, what really surprised her was her complete lack of reaction, in fact.

 

You know, it’s that very specific state of mind that makes you realize that everybody has their own quota of strange things that can happen to them, and that the limit of the weirdness they can handle at a time is very personal and specific to each individual. Once you’ve got past the line, you just reach that point where practically nothing can surprise you anymore, if only temporarily.

So when your limit is indeed crossed by the cruelty of nature, you just stand there, mouth slightly agape, staring at what put you in this state and mentally nodding in that ‘This is normal’ gesture, because it would require too much from your neurons to process an explanation or just muster the energy to say that this is not supposed to happen.

 

So yeah, if you were following this train of thought, this is the state our little pseudo-protagonist was in.

 

“a’right, maybe the last one was a bit of a stretch.” He rolled his eyes and shrugged overdramatically. Then he paused and his grin expanded. “but don’t tell me it completely _left ya in the dark_ , eh…?”

… _Aaand_ he threw the finger gun. Damn it.

 

He finally seemed to notice that the teenage girl wasn’t reacting at all. No laughs, no smiles, not even grunting. Only… well, that same face of utter shock as from the beginning. Except that by that time she had gradually stepped back until she bumped into the wall behind her and couldn’t go any further, and that now she appeared to be holding on to it for dear life.

 

When he saw her drop the flashlight, he realized that by that time, the girl _might_ have just completely disconnected from reality for a minute or two.

 

Well, by now I guess it should be someone else’s cue to say something along the lines of: _“Sans, I think you broke the human.”_

 

“uh… hello? did your power… black out, too…?”

 

He seemed a little desperate for an answer, by that point. Whether positive or negative.

Nevertheless, he still obtained none.

 

Yeah, even you can see that this one was the lamest of all, buddy.

 

“… ugh. too soon for puns, got it.” He buried his hands further into his pockets and seemed to sink his head into his shoulders, as he looked away in disappointment and mumbled under his breath: “tough crowd.”

 

She quickly stared at what appeared to be a _living_ _skeleton_ , rising and lowering repeatedly her gaze down to all the details she could perceive. Despite his still being pretty much hidden in the distant shadows, far away from the silly little Trustworthy Flashlight’s brightness now that it was not focused on his face anymore, she immediately noticed the trademark blue hoodie that she could have recognized anywhere. And his short pants. And the bones. She did not want to focus on the bones. But still, she immediately realized that she _perfectly_ knew who this was.

 

Well, rather, who this guy _looked like_.

She couldn’t help but smile awkwardly. She hated it when she couldn’t understand what was going on. Nervous smirks didn’t really help, but she couldn’t stop them from appearing on her face whenever she was tense and anxious.

And especially when she was mocking herself for actually starting to seriously consider some dumb and random option that was just _not_ possible.

 

This, simply, was not Sans. There basically was no way. Some random pile of pixels from a simple _video game_ could not magically all of a sudden become corporeal and sentient and _be facing her right now in the four dimensions of space and time_. She would _not_ discuss that science fact, that was simply out of the question.

 

Whoever she was facing right now was just. _Not. Him._

 _Undertale was **not. Real.**_

 

She had no idea why that random creepy guy would want her to think otherwise, though.

Well, she _had_ a few hypotheses, but none of them really could conveniently justify all the trouble the man must have come into just to order everything in place to the slightest details. That was necessary if he wanted to be convincing of course, but… Just, _what was that for?_

 

Well, on second thought, no matter what reasons she could think of, that whole mess would have just been unnecessarily overcomplicated and frustrating to prepare, in comparison with the results they would have got anyway. For an instant she almost considered pretending she actually fell into his trap, and improvising some kind of ‘roleplay’ or something out of pity, but she quickly felt very uneasy about it. She had been _kidnapped_ after all. There was no room for jokes with your kidnapper.

 

And yet, although she had quickly bent down to retrieve the flashlight she had let fall on the floor at some point, she would not raise her arm back and try to cover his face with its light once again. Nah, his face was very good the way it was right now in the shadows, thank you very much.

Her hand was a little shaky and cold, raising the light stick would only make things worse.

“… Ha. That was a really good impression of Sans.” she eventually uttered in a voice that sounded much less confident than she had intended to. “Also his lab. Honestly, I’d _almost_ buy it if it weren’t for a few details. Like, you know. The fact that he’s not real. Just saying.”

 

There was no worded response from Definitely-Not-Sans. She thought she might have heard a distant outburst of laughter, but it stopped abruptly and she hadn’t seen him move. He was still standing in the shadows, staring at her with an unreadable total lack of expression, both his hands deeply buried into his pockets.

 

Well, when his whole face was engulfed in the dark, it was quite difficult to distinguish it clearly anyway… But she thought she could see that little glimmer of a confused and slightly embarrassed _“ … excuse me, what?”_ in his shining pupils— even though she completely ignored it (these can’t be pupils, it’s just a costume! He probably just used LEDs or something like that).

 

“The computer is new, uh? I-I’ve never seen its sprite, u-unless it’s supposed to be Papyrus’s. And I was sure there only was _one_ big machine at most— the one in the back, I mean, all the others over there are just decoys, right? O-oh, and the thing I was sleeping on, too. It’s the green couch, isn’t it? W-well, too bad, it wasn’t supposed to be in this room.” She tried to cross her arms and puff out her chest as an attempt to increase her confidence. The effectiveness of such act was debatable. “So. See? If y-you wanted me to think that I’d somehow got drawn into the game or whatever, you got another thing coming.”

 

For at least a good dozen seconds, the guy simply stared at her in disbelief, not knowing how to react. Was there just any way to properly react? He wondered.

 

He refused to regard this as a possibility at first, but…

 

 _… oh. oh god she’s serious._

 

He had to muster all his remaining energy in the sole objective of not openly bursting out laughing at her face. He would _not_ be able to regain a straight face afterwards and he needed to get serious at some point. But– she just…

 

Yeah, pretty much feeling you there, buddy. I think we reached the jackpot.

 

However, the only thing that girl was able to see from her current spot was that Definitely-Not-Sans had finally decided to get on the move, muffling what sounded like some kind of ( _almost_ ) amused chuckle while… slightly shrugging, maybe. It was really hard to see what he was doing in the dark, but she preferred that rather than raising that torchlight back at him.

 

He wondered whether he should directly tell her or just roll with it and let her realize on her own. But seeing how potentially unstable (and arguably hilarious) she could get, the second option seemed to present itself as the most appropriate. She had already fainted once before due to him being too straightforward, after all— to such extent, she seemed to not even remember that it had ever happened. Granted, she had just seen him for less than ten seconds and then fainted immediately, so there probably wasn’t much to remember anyway.

 

Either way, he wasn’t willing to reiterate the experience. Besides, maybe doing things her way would give him the opportunity to extract some information from her if he was lucky enough. He _was_ pretty curious about a lot of things himself.

 

He would let her deduce the truth at her own pace.

At least, he would try.

Still, he feared that this would take a _while_.

 

“heh… ok wow. i see you DO know that game in the details. i’ll admit, i’m impressed.” He chuckled a little more, then gave a nod towards the faraway sofa on his right side. “you’re pretty observant. yes, that’s the couch from the living room. put it down here a few weeks ago.”

 

When she lent another glance at the sofa, she could indeed realize that it did look a lot like the one from the game.

But of course the stupid girl _had_ to guide the flashlight towards the oh-so-fascinating piece of furniture she had _already inspected mere minutes ago anyway_ and leave the skeleton without surveillance, if only for just _one _freaking second__. I kinda hoped at some point… But no, we’ll have to cope with the Ultimate Idiot kind. Oh well, not everything can be perfect, huh?

Still. How much do you wanna bet this is gonna backfire on her within the next seconds?

 

And indeed, as soon as her eyes strayed away from him, the sound of a few calm footsteps suddenly caught her attention from behind, and when she turned back her gaze and Trusty Torch towards the spot where he had been standing until then, she noticed he wasn’t there anymore, nor anywhere nearby. Instead, she found him a few seconds later lying lazily on the couch, his arms idly stretching over its soft greenish back as he used his hands as makeshift pillows and grinned trollesquely (wait no it’s just a mask).

… Well, role-playing all along, wasn’t he?

He sure was enjoying this.

 

 _… Still, how the heck did he get there so quickly?_

 

The Trusty Torch started to shake and the shadows of the room followed, dancing around its cold immaculate white.

 

“By the way, uh, wow. You really must’ve put a lot of effort into making all this. And I don’t know that much about time travel mind-screws, but, those blueprints are quite convincing. You really must be a hardcore fan, aren’t you?” She chuckled shakily, unconvinced. “Can I just ask you, uh, why you did all this exactly? You do realize this is technically a kidnapping, right?”

 

She was trying to take it lightly and make it sound as if it were a joke, but it felt obvious that it definitely wasn’t. This masquerade had been lasting for long enough; besides, all this really was starting to get on her nerves.

She simply could not understand. This entire situation was making no sense whatsoever, this place was starting to freak her out although she was still sort of glad that this guy disguised as a skeleton was keeping some distance between them because that really was the last thing she could be getting to complete the scheme even though those were definitely not real bones—

 

Oh gosh, she was starting to hyperventilate again. It kept getting harder to hold the stupid stick, as if it were now made of lead. Viscous and wet lead.

… Wait, no, the humidity was just the cold sweat. Nothing strange here. Hahaha.

 

“… hey. you alright kiddo?”

 

It felt odd that he genuinely seemed slightly concerned, even if he was good at hiding it on his face ( _duh_ , he was obviously wearing a mask, so of course his entire face was hidden). But no, his tone could not fool anyone, he had picked on the nervousness surrounding her.

He did not particularly care about that stranger (heck, he didn’t even _know_ that kid to begin with); but still, seeing _anyone_ in that state was concerning enough as it was.

He was squishing the sofa’s cushions in his bony fingers, as if he were on the verge of rushing towards her if she were to collapse because of her shaky pale legs.

 

Interestingly, it appeared that this last observation was what pushed her to take a step back and answer in a fast and winded voice as soon as she caught her breath back. She stiffened in an attempt to regain control of her tremors.

 

“As alright as could any _normal_ person be when they find themselves trapped in a dark locked room after being kidnapped by a lunatic dressed like _Undertale_ _’s_ most memetic and creepy-yet-popular character for whichever psychopathic reasons you found, _thanks_.” she retorted bitterly with a desperate sarcastic grin.

 

… Well, if she still had enough energy for sarcasm, then her case probably wasn’t _that_ worrying after all. Still just a bit.

 

“ha, yeah, right… sorry for leavin’ you all alone in the dark. i thought i could leave for a bit and try to do something about the blackout while you were out, but i guess my little experiment _might_ have done a bit more damage than i thought… heh eh.”

For a short instant, he seemed to actually hesitate, as if he were measuring his words and trying carefully to choose the exact ones. Though it seemed that beyond the mere words, their repercussions were what truly bothered him.

 

She clearly was not doing nearly as fine as he would have preferred, but she just… _had_ to hear the truth at some point, right? Normally, he would not have bothered with something like this— especially because, at least at the beginning, this had some nice potential as joke material, and he wondered whether she would keep finding excuses to ‘prove’ that he weren’t real even while she would see more about this world. However… he remembered how she had first reacted, and that had _not_ been pretty.

 

He feared that if he stopped caring about this issue and just rolled with things as they were, the moment everything would click in her mind would just so happen to be the worst possible moment. Namely, the moment she would find some irrefutable evidence that would let her realize _everything_ all at once— just like the moment when he had shoved her through his machine’s portal with blue magic when they met for the first time.

 

She had freaked out to the point where she fainted instantly and had no later recollection whatsoever about this event, after all. She could totally do it again. So… Baby steps.

 

“i’ve been using that basement a lot, y’know, since i’ve been working on some pretty… otherworldly stuff, recently. and it all allowed you to get here, in the end. you’d find it pretty fantastic if you only tried to believe it and stopped waving that torch at random. so uh, guess you could say it’s time to _see the light_ , now. ain’t i right…?”

 

… _Seriously, is that all you’ve got? Even **I** can tell that this pun was objectively lame._

 

She merely glared at him and pouted in frustration as her grip on the torchlight tightened. That guy’s attitude was starting to annoy her to such extent, she was almost starting to forget her instinctive feeling of dread.

She was completely incapable of watching horror films without being found whimpering in a corner as soon as the first bits of gore appeared and as a consequence she hardly ever watched any, but _anybody_ could easily deduce that dark locked basements and masked suspicious men were _never_ a good match; the fact that she was starting to give her annoyance more credit than that primal fear was a pretty talkative fact on its own.

 

Part of her almost wanted him to shift to the ‘kidnapper’ part and start to explain what was going on. That, at least, would have been less frustrating than watching him pseudo-roleplaying by sitting on the couch and saying meaningless ‘pranks’ that weren’t even supposed to be funny to the slightest.

 

“Speaking of getting me here, I _am_ wondering: why me? I mean, if it has anything to do with _Undertale_ , then it’s not like I could be the _‘best fan you could have ever found’_ or some other stupid thing like that. I never even _played_ the game in the first place.”

 

For some reason, she almost _felt_ that guy’s overwhelming silence the very instant she had uttered that last sentence. She was not completely sure why, but it was almost as if she had just _sensed_ his sudden tension without even needing to turn her eyes and watch it on his face, in spite of the distance between them.

 

And even though she simply dismissed this feeling as a mere coincidence or some kind of ‘predictability’ she could have intuited in his excessively silent reaction, she was still slightly taken aback by how seriously he seemed to take that revelation, feeling this rising… was this confusion or anger? Or both?

 

The skeleton’s grip on the sofa tightened once more; but this time, it was for a completely different reason.

 

“Wait. Seriously?” he uttered as calmly as he could, though probably a little too fast and somberly.

 

It was the first time she _really_ paid attention, but since the beginning she had noticed that there was something peculiar about the timbre in his voice. Until now she had assumed that it was only due to the fact that his mask (it had to be some sort of latex mask after all, this was the only possibility, _right?_ ) had to be somewhat muffling his words, but this time… She couldn’t help but notice that this time it really had sounded even stranger than before.

 

If it really had been Sans in one of his in-game dialogues, she could have almost guessed that he would have put some capitals in his speech, for once. And one thing she had learned fast enough through the fandom was that with that monster, proper capitalization was _never_ a good sign.

 

 _Good thing that option is definitely out of the way._

 

“Yeah!” she shrugged obliviously. “Honestly, I suck so much at video games, you have _no_ idea. I’ve even been wondering if there was something like a world record for that. I’m not kidding, even if I _wanted_ to play that game, I wouldn’t even survive five minutes.”

 

And there came back that exact same awkward silence. He was uncomfortably staring at her without even moving the slightest from his seat, narrowing and twitching his eyes, which from that distance could only be distinguished through what was supposed to mimic a pair of eye-sockets.

With that giant smile stuck on his mask, it was tricky to decipher what the expression on his real face could be; but he really seemed to be deeply confused, if not… _shocked_.

 

The small lights in his eye-sockets darkened as he stared at her with always more intensity. That brat obviously knew very specific facts about what seemed to be background details that most of the common players would have most definitely overlooked without question, and yet not only she first claimed that she had _nothing_ to do with it at all, but now she even had the nerve to…

 

So _this_ was how things were.

This all made so much more sense now. _Of course_ nobody could be dumb enough to stay so oblivious for _that_ long.

 

Just _what_ kind of human could be so smart and observant that they would remember and point out details so minor that _he_ would have not noticed them himself nearly as fast, and yet be so dense that she wouldn’t even acknowledge _the_ _most obvious detail that was lying right under her nose_?

 

It was all so clear now. She already knew. She already knew, _and she had been playing dumb all along_.

This was such evil brilliance. He had to hand it to that brat, she _had_ managed to fool him for much longer than most had before her. Thankfully, she had made a fatal mistake that immediately exposed her lies.

 

Well, if this was the way things had started, then he could just as well play pretend along with her, huh. He would need to be more careful with his words and pay close attention to hers, but he could always try to squeeze some juicy answers out of her in the process.

 

“well, maybe. but… you must have at least _tried_ at some point, right?” he asked warily. “you were about to start a very special run, at that. Weren’t you?”

 

She would eventually spill the beans. She had to. She did not _necessarily_ have to be a completely rotten apple.

Or if she was, she seemed to be talkative enough that her words would betray her at some point. All he had to do was make her talk until the truth came out by itself.

 

Her innocent tone and stupid attitude had been amusing him at first, but now that he knew that it was just a façade, this was only making him sick. What could be lying underneath? Part of him dreaded to find out.

 

“Well, yeah, I was about to play it since my friends kept trying to make me for the past few weeks. But _somehow_ I ended up here before I could actually get started, so nope, I technically never played the game.” She turned her eyes towards him and squinted them into a dark glare before continuing. “I **wonder** who’s at fault for dragging me away from my laptop.”

 

Both his eye-sockets twitched once, very furtively, both at the same time; but besides that, he had remained perfectly still for what felt like whole minutes now. And even then, his last gesture had been subtle and she reasoned that latex masks could probably not make _that_ sort of motion, so she decided that it had to be her imagination.

 

“Hey, are you alright?” She mockingly repeated the words he had previously used to address her when she had been in a similar state. “You almost look like you’re about to collapse or something.” She was not even hiding her nervous yet genuinely sarcastic chuckle. “Seriously, _I’m_ the one who was kidnapped here. Are you gonna explain what’s going on or not?”

 

He paused, tensely running a white hand along his face and slowly burying his eyes into his fingers, as to try to rub off some kind of nausea. The rubbing let out a little rattling sound that gracefully put the teenager even more at unease, as she unconsciously stepped back and bumped into the wall once again. Did latex make that sort of sound when you rubbed it…?

 

… And wait a minute. Did she just see his mask _blink_?

No. No-no-no. Not possible. That didn’t happen. Nope. Her fear and tension were just playing tricks on her again.

 

“n… never mind. let’s just… change the subject. how do you happen to know that much about that, uh, _game_ , then? you sure seem to know an awful lot, for someone who _allegedly never touched it_.”

 

Her eyes suddenly widened in what would seem to be genuine surprise, but some discreet eerie sparks of anger twinkled in the corners of her flickering eyelids.

 

“Oh yeah, sure, _that’s_ more like the kidnapper part to ask the questions and ignore mine.” she snapped exasperatedly, rolling her eyes in growing annoyance. “Are you _kidding_? You kidnap me and then all you do is start some random cosplay and lie in that couch and such, and now you’re just expecting me to tell about my hobbies just like we’re talking about the weather around a cup of tea!”

 

She crossed her arms and huffed tensely. Her patience really started to reach its limit now, and _that_ was saying something. But seriously, that was just starting to make _way too much_ weirdness for her standards.

“Well, sorry to disappoint, but I’m not here for casual banter. I want an explanation, and I’m gonna _get one_.”

 

He sighed in anticipation, but locked his white lights on her and spied on each of her movements and expressions. She didn’t even give him a glare, because she already knew that whatever he could say, she wouldn’t be contented with it anyway. She didn’t even care whether or not he was still there watching her; if he wasn’t getting to the important part, then _she_ would be. There was so much waiting could do. Once the right opportunity was found, it was time to _get moving_.

Starting with the first logical conclusion she could think about, she looked around and brandished her torchlight in various directions, sometimes gesturing some discreet lines as she was trying to figure out some sort of trajectory. Then she started to approach the desk again, lifting random blueprints and sheets before replacing them approximately in the same mess as before. When she seemed to fail to find whatever she had in mind, her gestures nevertheless resumed the cycle at a faster rate and she paced towards more locations in the room to investigate more thoroughly.

 

Well isn’t that the face of one big desperate girl there. The way she keeps digging her own grave is truly baffling. In a sort of mesmerizing way, almost. Could such mixture between powerful observation skills and incredible foolishness really exist?

 

“what are you looking for?” he eventually asked tiredly, but with what seemed to be some little spark of curiosity and amusement. No way _this_ was needed to be reckoned with, this now really was pure stupidity. She wouldn’t find anything dangerous in there.

 

“The camera.” she answered immediately, not even turning her eyes towards him. “You can’t be a REAL kidnapper, you made _way_ too many mistakes, and this act is just _preposterous_. So this is some kind of prank, right? There’s a camera somewhere in this room, recording us _right_ _now_ , and when you submit the file we’ll become internet famous or whatever.”

… Excuse me?

 

“You know, unless you’re using an infrared camera, I don’t think anyone’s gonna see much on the images; but I’ll admit, keeping the lights out _were_ a good way to better hide your equipment and put the right atmosphere, so maybe you’re not completely an amateur. What are you looking for, YouTube money? Well… I’m sure the result must be _hilarious_ _, so maybe you did make a safe bet with that_. It’s pretty easy to make Undertale videos viral.”

 

Definitely-Not-Sans seemed to widen his eyes in genuine surprise, for once. Though he still was obviously amused by all her (indeed) pretty much hilarious gesticulations here and there, he just… The way she managed to make her performance sound so genuine despite the stream of sheer absurdities she was uttering was simply beyond him.

 

“… ok, **_wow_**. so you really are of the conspiracy theory type, huh?”

 

“Well, usually not that much, but it’s not like there were many _other_ options left.” She had stopped her search for a few seconds, only to turn to him and let shine that big cocky smirk that was supposed to look sarcastic… but it really just looked pathetic.

 

“haha. yeah. you’re right. t‘s not like there was the _obvious and simple option_ that it could all be real.”

 

Now staring at the desk and the things lying messily around it, she opened her mouth to confirm in the most confident and cynical tone she could get— but she never found the time to actually say anything.

 

Something had caught her shoulder from her back.

The grip felt so strong and _done_.

 

“just kidding. it’s high time you get real, kid.”

 

That voice, that _same voice_ that was coming _seconds_ ago from the couch, was now sounding right from behind her back. She shivered and, as a reflex, looked over her right shoulder— But then she met in the dim light, hardly a foot away from her eyes, something that was _definitely_ _not_ a latex mask.

 

His left eye was still flickering an eerie blue, coming from the depths of his eye socket. The light magically stopped a split second later, but its striking impression remained.

His stuck and still giant smirk sliced his whole face in half and somehow seemed to keep enlarging itself in an eerily edgy forced grin.

 

B o n e s .

 

It was real. Oh God this was real. This was Sans and he was staring at her and he looked _so done_ and everything she had said about him and the game he had heard it all and he was real. Her eye fell on that white hand still clutching her shoulder, its holes and its so fragile yet so strong phalanges and its iron grip on her flesh and the cold

She let out a sudden hysteric cry, but she could not even hear it herself. She didn’t even feel her vibrating vocal chords, although they were shaking and struggling in an attempt to escape it, threatening to be torn apart any instant.

 

The entire room started to turn around her at an ever growing speed, while flickering lights and orange and red and dim yellow in pitch black and skulls and claws crawling on her back and the dark ceiling and low yells all resonated in unison like distorted laughs of…

 

… She passed out. _Again_.

 

Sans watched with bewilderment at what had suddenly become an unconscious body that had fallen down on the tiled floor, without any warning and apparently not about to move again for a while.

He started to tremble in exasperation as his left hand ran upon his skull, slowly covering his eye-sockets as they were slowly darkening.

He tried to let out a reasonably controlled sigh so he could stay calm, but he could feel his patience run out entirely.

 

 _… seriously?_

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	2. Act 1, Scene 2.1

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 2.1

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* * *

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* * *

She grumbled weakly, as her arm tried to blindly look for her blanket and pull it back to her side. What a nightmare she just had… Not only had it been ridiculous, it was purely terrifying as well. And annoying.

 

She really couldn’t find her blanket. Or her pillow, for that matter— whatever her head was lying on, that wasn’t her pillow. She was getting cold. So annoying.

 

 _… Wait a minute._

 

She opened her eyes in a start and stared down.

This wasn’t her bed either.

 

She saw a cold light in the distance. She stared.

Definitely-Not-Sans was sitting at the desk and had taped the flashlight back on top of the desk lamp so he could work on a huge messy pile of papers. Probably blueprints. She saw him wave a pen around and scratch the back of his skull with a rattling sound that made her shiver and she even thought she heard some grunting and mumbling at some point.

 

Until his movements went to a halt and he became stiff as a statue. _Very_ slowly, she saw him turn his chair so he could face her. He looked annoyed.

 

“oh. hey. you _sure_ like to take your time, uh?”

His head was now resting nonchalantly on his left hand, whose elbow was leisurely lying on the desk. She felt like he had tried and failed to sound friendly, but only his boredom and a reasonably controlled irritation poorly wrapped into genuine sarcasm had been audible, in spite of his possible efforts.

The human rose a livid head, her expression stuck with shock and an ever growing fear as her jaw gaped open.

 

 _Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope, nope, not happening, this is **not happening…**_

 

Sans rolled his eyes cynically.

 

“nope, i’m still here. not a dream.” he sighed, rubbing his forehead as if he were trying to avoid face-palming too openly. “now that this is finally settled, maybe we could just—”

 

“Y-You can’t be Sans… Ha-ha-ha, right…? I-It just doesn’t make sense, t-that’s physically i-impossible…”

 

It sounded as if he grinded his teeth, as he slowly but angrily stood up and started pacing threateningly towards her.

 

“ _oh_ no you won’t. i don’t know how long you wanted to play this game, but I’ve had enough of it.”

 

Her instincts screamed at her to jump out of the sofa and get the hell away from here, but her legs did not respond. Then again, the door had probably been locked again by now, so it wasn’t like she could have gone anywhere.

 

The skeleton’s left hand closed into a fist as if he had just taken a grip onto something.

She yelped as she immediately felt some kind of _pull_ coming from her very deep chest, but as soon as he put his hand into motion, all she really managed to do afterwards was gasp in shock— and for breathable air, too.

The next instant, all she had time to realize was that she couldn’t feel the ground under her feet anymore— and that she was now stuck _floating in midair_ , her face standing hardly one foot away from his.

 

Wow, now _that_ escalated quickly! You done goofed, girl.

His eye flashed with rings of bright cyan ember trembling in the middle of an obscure endless void, and his voice had seemed to sound even deeper than before. The right eye-socket was just pure darkness as its shape seemed to still enlarge itself in one round black hole.

Part of her wanted to scream, but her gawking mouth felt speechless and dry.

 

“Listen, kid. I’ve been patient until now, but I have WAY more important things to do than play the babysitter. Especially yours.”

 

“P-P-PUT ME DOWN!”

 

He didn’t even flinch in response to that hysterical shriek, instead slightly narrowing his shadowed bony pseudo-eyebrows. Unlike before when all that could be seen of his face was some vague pale silhouette under the electric shades of the torchlight, this time his entire features were somehow lit from below by a ghastly deep watery halo quivering between them.

Although his tone sounded calmer, for once his ever stuck smile seemed eerily in place as his left iris stabilized to an abysmal azure shade throwing daggers all around.

 

“at first i thought you were just being stupid. maybe you are. i mean, you did make a VERY dumb mistake.” The grip in his left glowing fist tightened and the pain in her chest doubled, making her yelp in surprise following the feeling of this ever narrowing constriction. “You REALLY must’ve got some guts to take me for an idiot, especially when you already know as much as you do.”

 

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU’RE _TALKING_ ABOUT!”

 

He frowned more. His grip tightened more. Whatever that was that she could now feel _pounding_ in her chest, that was huge, that was flashing dark blue, and that was hurting. It felt as if someone had somehow managed to hang her by her heart and it was doing its best to keep pounding at a wild rate as if it were about to free itself from her ribcage.

It hurt. He was furious and he was scary and it _hurt_.

 

“you already know this, but a long time ago… i promised that if any human came through the door leading to the ruins, then i’d have to protect them.” No matter how impossible it was supposed to be, she felt as if his smile had somehow grown even larger. His eye suddenly stopped glowing, although he still maintained a strong magical hold on her. “But you technically didn’t come t h r o u g h that door, did you?”

 

“PLEASE I’LL DO ANYTHING JUST PUT ME _DOWN_!”

 

This time however, he did stop; if only for a split second.

His hand faintly lowered, even if his grip was still keeping his prey at a reasonable distance from the ground.

 

The human was forcefully trying to curl up in on herself in some kind of ridiculous malformed ball of flesh, still floating in midair, with a dark blue halo flashing and trembling in the middle of her chest. Her shaking hands wrapped around her head and covered her ears, while her eyes were forcedly closed and tearing apart in weak cries slightly twinkling in the dim light.

 

For some strange reason, at this instant, Sans started to feel that something really was wrong; as if internally he _knew_ that any other normal human was not meant to react _that_ badly.

 

He had obviously meant to give her a scare; but given the type of human this was; given that even the dumbest of these _players_ were able to _predict_ any of the _game_ ’s **_characters_** ’ behaviors at least to some extent, and given the incredibly exhaustive knowledge she herself had proven to hold… Shouldn’t she have _expected_ him to react similarly to this? Shouldn’t she have _seen this coming_?

 

She had proven to be quite the sassy and resourceful kid, and a pretty observant one at that, easily to the point of actually becoming dangerous if she started jumping to conclusions and going back to that ‘paranoia mode’ of hers. Sure, he had seen her shaking and stuttering even during his first conversation with her, but even when her fear was obvious, he had simply assumed that she was the type of person who would sneakily bite back in the case of danger, just like what she had done the last time.

 

This radical change of behavior was deeply disconcerting, to say the least. He first tried to dismiss this impression as he reasoned that she was probably faking such over-the-top response so he would let his guard down and hesitate at the worst moment, if only for an instant— but the feeling would only get stronger the longer he was staring at this pitiful view, and the fact that her soul was plain visible and fully within his grasp only made her true feelings all the more obvious.

 

This was **_not_** the expression of a calculating liar crying crocodile tears.

 

“Put me down” she repeated again and again in a shaking and desperately imploring voice, “put me down, put-me-down please put-me-down ooh put-me-down-I’m-so-sorry-but-oh-my-God-put-me-down…”

 

His eye-sockets closed as he sighed tensely. As much as he remained deeply annoyed by the time they were wasting, his anger was simply and effectively defeated by his surprise and confusion, and his hand carefully sent the crybaby back in place on the couch, before he released his grasp. Act or not, it was now definite that pushing her that way would lead nowhere. So much for trying to have her spill the beans.

 

For the next few seconds, he stood in front of her, waiting for the right moment to finally _start_ explaining his plans or just begin an actual conversation… But the kid would not stop crying and shaking, even though he could tell that she was trying her best to calm down on her own.

 

… Well. That was awkward.

 

“uhh… ok, _maybe_ i pushed it a bit too far, and i’m still a little mad at you for lying to me about this game thing… but that stuff doesn’t even matter in the end, so… i mean, uh, what with you knowing even more about the game than **_I_** do… i thought it was obvious that i was mostly messin’ with ya. mostly.”

 

Yeah, it really wasn’t.

 

He watched as the fleshy ball kept trembling and sobbing for about one or two more minutes, and he eventually brought his rolling chair along as soon as his laziness told him that he was getting bored. He could hear the brat mutter distorted words sounding like some awkward apologies, but it took a while before she finally pulled her crimson head away from her arms and struggled to actually meet him in the eyes.

Or at least, she just tried to stare back at the pair of white glowing pellets glaring at her, given the fact that the only source of light available was once more only that of the little faraway torchlight, sitting on top of the desk located at least a dozen feet away from them. From that distance she could still somewhat imagine the skeleton’s outlines under the dim cold light, but it only sharpened his features through dancing ghastly reflections on his skull.

 

Once more, Sans was slightly taken aback for a half second upon seeing the expression on her face. If this wasn’t just some _incredibly convincing_ act, then the genuine message it read was crystal clear:

For some reason, it almost appeared as if the mere fact of _looking at him_ was actually _painful_.

 

He had seen fear. He knew what fear looked like.

This definitely was _something else_.

 

“… Sans.” was all she eventually managed to whisper in a broken voice that still somewhat struggled to hide her terror, to no avail.

 

“you’re still on to that?” he lifted his nonexistent eyebrows with a cynical mock-surprise. “i figured you’d have realized when you were hangin’ around in the air. or, uh. back to when we met around, what, an hour ago by now?”

 

She clumsily pushed her way back into the depths of the sofa (and almost lost her balance in the process), as she apparently tried to increase the distance between them as much as it was physically possible.

Then she looked down and trembled again.

 

“I-I really didn’t. S-sorry. I m-must’ve looked stupid…”

 

“pretty much.” he nodded in a mockingly solemn way.

 

The awkward silence resumed. He heard her sniffle and try to recompose herself, but it was obvious that she still looked deeply shaken. Sans thought about all the things he wanted to explain, but after a few more seconds…

He decided that maybe that could wait a little, as he gave in and sighed. Maybe they _both_ needed a time-out, after all. There was so much a serious existential-crisis-inducing conversation could do, especially under such circumstances.

 

“… look. i get it, you know…? i took you from wherever you used to be and got you here while you never asked for anythin’, you had no idea that this game you used to play was actually alive or whatever…” He shrugged and took an audible, genuinely calm breath. “must be pretty freaky to have the truth hammered onto you like that. t’was hard for me, too.”

 

She slowly raised a pair of red swollen eyes towards him, silently watching him with a mixture between fear, sadness and… was this some actual, genuine compassion? He didn’t seem to be paying her any attention though, as he hardly gave her a glance, and sighed instead.

 

“but in the end, ok. _maybe_ it wasn’t the same kind of shock. since, um,” he sent her an awkward grin and looked as if he was _sincerely_ making a joke, “ _i’m_ not the one who used to take over a child’s body and slaughter everyone in sight literally because it’s a game and you’re doing it for fun. heh eh.”

 

The girl’s head was slowly buried in her arms as her cheeks reddened in embarrassment and guilt.

 

 _… Ouch. I never even played the game to begin with, but OUCH._

She was trying to take deep breaths, slowly taking in the consequences of these events.

 

 _Undertale_ was real. The Resets were real, if the video game she knew really was controlling this world. A Genocide Route had been attempted at some point and Sans remembered it. Did he remember it because he somehow could remember the Resets, or because it was the Route he had just been through? As far as the theories deduced, the actual canon game evidence pointed towards the fact that Sans could _not_ remember the Resets, so…

She shivered. That only left them with the second option.

 

Sans had kidnapped her because she was about to play _Undertale_ herself, so it meant that the Players were responsible for multiple bad things occurring in this world. Definitely the Resets. Maybe even more than ‘just’ that.

 

She lowered her eyes and buried a little more her head in her arms, deep in thought.

If she was getting things straight, then the most obvious part was that _somehow_ , the game was real. It affected sentient people, and not just meaningless sprites and code with predetermined dialogues and actions to follow without any hint of actual individual thought into it.

The players were not toying with pixels, but with real lives. The reason why their dialogue could be always the same, yet so easily changed by the subtlest shifts in the player’s actions, was because they couldn’t remember the Resets, thus were prone to simply repeat their actions whenever time itself was rewound and they were confronted repeatedly to the same circumstances over and over.

 

It made no sense, but when facing this specific kind of context, it seemed to be the only thing that _would_ make sense. Sans’s dialogue’ here sure was a lot more adaptable than in any regular simulation she could imagine, and he sure had felt physically tangible enough when he grabbed her that last time, _thank you very much_.

 

… And yet, there still was something that prevented this all from sounding truly real to her. She had entirely put aside the ‘dream’ option by now, but still— something was amiss.

For all she knew, the original video game made it clear that their lives were still led by numbers, and the fandom took it as canon too for the most part— because it _was_. It was canon that they were _literally_ living in a video game. Monsters and humans alike had “LOVE” and “EXP”, their basic attacks followed predetermined patterns (it was _canon_ that monsters could somehow be offered “patterns” as _presents_ ), their fights were turn-based and their actions were apparently confined within the sole limit of ‘their’ turn, and their physical abilities depended on statistics such as “HP”, “ATK” and “DEF.” A real world that truly made sense would not accept such things to develop alongside its regular laws of physics. Even just the _Resets_ thing itself— she enjoyed sci-fi stories and theories, but for all she knew, time travel was just _impossible_.

 

So even if they were truly sentient and deserved basic respect and rights as real ~~characters~~ people, it didn’t necessarily make them _physically_ real. Their world and its mechanics simply wouldn’t make sense otherwise, if it were just as real as her own.

 

In a way, it was… almost reassuring. This world wasn’t her own, but it was still a lot more predictable, and _familiar_. She would have to adjust to quite a few things of course, but _logically_ , she should soon find her way through, right? Both this world and its inhabitants felt real, but she simply had to remember that they could not possibly be anything but some sort of _virtual simulation_ , could they? Like in _The Matrix_! Yes. As realistic and sentient they would all seem, Sans and all the others just had to be some sorts of futuristic artificial intelligences. Very, _very_ elaborate and _actually_ sentient artificial intelligences apparently able to feel actual emotions and having real virtual lives and families and human (?) moralities. Hahahahaha.

 

That wouldn’t prevent her from treating them like fully real people of course, because even if they weren’t real according to the physical aspect, they still were on the ethical one— and thus, they certainly didn’t deserve to go through all that mess the video game and its players apparently put on them.

… That still was one heck of a messed up situation.

 

Which led her to wonder… How had he reacted, upon learning by himself that his world wasn’t real? How had he managed to bring someone _real_ on the physical plane inside a (supposedly?) virtual place? Was it just like in the movie _The Matrix_ , and this body she was controlling right now and that looked like her own was, in fact, nothing more than a part of the simulation itself?

That might explain some things, maybe, like how Sans was able to… Had he turned her “SOUL” blue?

 

Whatever was that thing that she could feel beating at a steady rate inside her chest (and that _didn’t_ actually feel like her regular heart), it sure had never been there before. It had never made itself known, at least. It had to be specific to this ‘virtual body’ she must have gained upon arriving in this virtual world… Now that she was thinking about it, she wondered what her in-game stats could be. After all, if she now had a SOUL in the _Undertale_ meaning of the word, then it had to mean that she had her own stats as well, right? Would she have 20 HP too?

She tried not to think too hard about it. Thinking about HP made her think about taking damage and facing game overs, and she _really_ didn’t look forward to that possibility.

 

Then again… Why had she been brought here? Her being in this world meant that Sans had found a plan in order to solve his problems, and that he was about to put it to motion. And she probably was expected to have some sort of role to play in it, too.

Then again… _Sans_? Sans was the one who gave up so long ago… What made things so different this time? What happened to his _legendary_ laziness? Did it go on a vacation or something?

 

“… still.” he eventually added, sighing tiredly. “i was just thinkin’. it would’ve been nice if you could. y’know. at least _admit_ what you did. and not just pretend you never played the game or whatever.”

 

His tone did not sound particularly grave, but the serious look in his empty eye-sockets was talkative enough on its own. The human only gave him a pair of confused eyes in response, frowning in a puzzled pout. He didn’t really seem to care, as if he were certain that against what her body language said, she knew exactly what he was talking about.

 

“i mean, i _know_ you didn’t really do it on purpose. i’m not actually blamin’ you for anything, ‘cause i’m pretty sure you wouldn’t’ve done it if you knew you were hurtin’ real people. but that still happened. so… i really just expected at _least_ a ‘sorry’ or somethin’. y’know. for courtesy.”

 

“Wait… W-when you said I was lying, you thought…” Her face blanched as she started to feel nauseated. “B-but that wasn’t a lie, I swear! It really was—”

 

“kid, if you wanted to convince me that you _really_ never did anything wrong, you should’ve tried harder than that.”

 

She sent him a persistent and bewildered blank look.

 

After a few seconds during which they simply held that staring contest as if their silence could bend the argument in their favor, Sans eventually gave in. Why did all humans always have to be so unanimously determined even when there was no point to it whatsoever?

 

“ _ok_ , let me put it down more clearly for you.” he eventually sighed in defeat, rolling his eyes in annoyance and slowly standing up as he started walking towards his desk. “y’see, the way i brought you here? ‘f course it was related to the game so i could find your computer’s coordinates. but that’s not all. i wanted to avoid some kinds of accidents, y’see, like _inadvertently taking someone who was playing for the first time and had no idea what this whole mess was about, besides not having done anything to us yet_. that wouldn’t’ve been fair.” he shrugged heavily. “so i’d made sure that the player i’d get would be someone who was about to start a very specific type of run. one that newcomers aren’t supposed to play or even _know about_.” His white pupils pierced her like daggers as he narrowed his eye-sockets. “if you’re here, it means you know exactly WHICH run i’m talking about. Since it’s the one you were about to go through.”

 

She realized that she did. As she tried to imagine how he could have used specific programming-related triggers to select his target, and as she remembered that she had been kidnapped _before_ she had even been given the chance to take _any_ action whatsoever in the game, she realized that the best way to actually create a trigger was to choose something that was constant in the game, and that could only occur in a very limited number of ways.

 

For example: _naming the Fallen Human_.

 

No matter the name given, anyone could go through the same diversity of choices. All names could lead to either Pacifist or Genocide routes, without excluding any of the Neutrals that went in-between. Sans couldn’t possibly predict that a player would automatically go through one route or another before they even had time to meet the first monster in the game.

However… there _was_ a very special name that led to very special consequences.

 

“so let me recap.” he continued. “you show some extensive knowledge about the game’s details that _even **i**_ had no idea about, you try to play the game on hard mode, and when you arrive here you have the _gall_ to tell me that you NEVER played before because you SUCK at video games? you must really have some nerve to keep pretending your story makes any sense whatsoever by now.”

 

She opened her mouth to object. She left it open for a second or two, but no sound came out. Her eyes gradually lowered as her lips slowly closed and pursed in an embarrassed pout.

 

“… O-okay, w-when you put it like that I see what you mean.” She gulped. He was mad, she could tell. What would happen if he was mad? Would he attack again? She panicked. “B-but look, I swear I didn’t…! uh…”

“kid. stop. you’re just embarrassing yourself, now.” He sounded like he was grinding his teeth again. “trust me, i’m trying REALLY hard to not get mad at you ‘cause i _know_ it’s pointless, but you’re NOT making it easy.”

 

… Of course he wouldn’t trust her. He had made his point clear, after all. He could joke, but he was also a very rational and analytical guy when it came to his thinking. She reasoned that in his place, she probably would have gone through a similar conclusion herself.

 

And yet he was wrong. Not because there was a flaw in his deduction. But because he simply lacked some pieces of evidence that completely changed the story. This situation made her think back of her best friend’s absolute favorite video game, where evidence was everything and even the smallest detail could turn the situation around in an instant. Could she do something similar? Was there anything around her that could prove her claims?

 

She realized that there was. She _did_ have her cell phone with her. Didn’t she? She discreetly slid her hand in her jeans’ back pocket. It was there. A sigh of relief escaped her, although it didn’t leave her any less tense.

 

She raised a determined look back at him. Although her shivers went back as soon as her eyes caught sight of his face again, she tried to maintain her stance for as long as she could manage.

 

This was Sans. He was scary, but he was alive, and even if he was mad, she knew him pretty well. Maybe even more than himself to some extent…? She did not want to think too much about that part.

 

“I… L-look, I sup-pose you r-really don’t t-trust me, but…” She gulped and forcedly closed her eyes, clenching her fists. “If I _can_ prove it. Will you listen?”

 

He raised a nonexistent eyebrow in what appeared to be confusion and surprise. Under different circumstances, it could have seemed like he looked actually amused, but this time he probably was just even more annoyed.

After a few more seconds of looking at her up and down, studying her every details as if he were looking for evidence in her demeanor that she was playing him again, he appeared to give in once more.

 

“… heh. why the heck not. maybe you’ll get a laugh outta me if you’re good.” But then he widened his sockets and his white glowing pupils disappeared. “You’d better not be wasting my time, though.” Of course he’d want to pull that one to intimidate her and _of course_ she had seen it coming but **_of course_** it was extremely effective nonetheless.

 

His pupils came back immediately, even though he still looked deeply annoyed. He was supposed to look much less scary that way, but somehow it didn’t stop her shivers and she had to force her eyes closed and steady herself in order to try to regain her calm.

He crossed his arms in contempt and flumped down in his chair. The sudden motion made its little wheels reel back a few feet away, but he quickly stopped it by stomping his foot on the ground and he grunted quietly in response, mumbling curses against the laws of conservation of kinetic energy. His eyes went from staring at the floor with irritation to focusing on her face, sending her a death glare.

 

“humor me.”

 

His impatient and menacing tone showed that she would definitely not be given a second chance. In fact, she understood that she should feel _extremely_ lucky she had even been given a single chance at all. And her time was already running out.

While she would have preferred having been graced with at least a few more seconds of reflection under other circumstances so she could fully prepare her actions and better calculate the results, it felt obvious that pushing her luck would have been suicidal (she did _not_ want to know whether she should have meant it in a metaphorical or literal way).

 

So she immediately reached for her phone and pulled it out, quickly turning it on and opening one of its applications. After a few calculated movements of her thumb over the screen, she shakily rose up from the sofa and extended her arm as far as it could stretch, handing her little device for the skeleton to see. For the first few seconds, he refused to move and looked at her in an apathetic manner; but he quickly seemed to ponder his options and eventually decided to take it. Maybe because he would take it as a chance to mess with it or find some information regarding humans or her world, she realized.

… He still looked unimpressed, though.

 

“what am i looking at?”

 

“It’s. I-it’s my phone.”

 

Sans stared with some suddenly renewed interest at the little object he was keeping between his left bony fingers, turning it around and looking at it through various angles.

 

“that looks… pretty different from the phones i know. huh.” He played a bit more with it, weighing it in his palm and looking at its white back. “hm. fancy.”

 

“Y-yeah, it’s a p-pretty common model where I come from…” she rambled uneasily, laughing awkwardly and rubbing her arms. “I-I guess that when you… I-I mean, uh. It just, must’ve come with me. I suppose. Since I… always keep it around me at all times.”

 

He nodded and hummed again, absorbed in his thoughts as if he were contemplating what possibilities this tiny piece of technology could bring him. Still, he quickly lowered his hand on his lap and went back to glare at her warily.

 

“anyway. what’s it supposed to prove exactly?”

 

“I-it’s on the app.” she explained. “It’s a conversation I had with my friends. R-right before you… b-before I arrived here.”

 

His eye-sockets twitched, but he quickly gave another glance at the phone’s screen and saw words and lots of colors and images. Yep, it looked pretty much like some sort of chatroom.

 

She was still standing between the couch and his chair, but now she started regretting that she was not back to sitting on it. Part of her wanted to sink into it and become one with the furniture so she could stop feeling so anxious and cold.

Usually she was one of the most patient people her friends and relatives knew; but one thing that could break that patience was dread. When she could feel that her fate could very well depend on how he was about to interpret her arguments, she rationalized that she had no other choice but to at least _try_ to actively plead for her cause.

 

“L-look… Full story is, it was a bet. Okay? It was j-just a joke between my friends, and it’s been going on for _months_. At first I never even _wanted_ to play! I mean, I wasn’t completely _against_ the idea b-but I just thought it wasn’t w-worth trying, so… It’s just th-that today my best friend found a way to make me, and…”

 

Sans kept flipping through the messages, hardly listening to her. He was completely still. If it weren’t for his left thumb brushing the screen from time to time, he just might have been mistaken for a statue.

 

@BlueDoppler: This is FINALLY happening, guys. I’m not even kidding.

 

@Calliope Quill: Now I’m the lost one. What have we been apparently ”hyping” for exactly?

 

@BlueDoppler: Dawn. She’s finally doing it.

 

He carried on brushing through the screen. He wondered how that technology could work, that was truly fascinating. Monsterkind had only ever known phones with actual buttons, so the concept of the _screen_ being a unique yet ever-changing button all by itself was a complete novelty to him. He would have been interested in potentially opening that thing and observing how things worked inside of it.

 

Alphys would probably have been even more interested than he already was. She would probably be obsessed over it for a few days. Find magical adaptations to that human technology in order to improve the daily life in the Underground or something.

 

“It r-really wasn’t that bad at first. It was just a joke between us because, we’ve been friends for months, and we talked about Undertale almost all the time, and they were all like, _‘You can’t be a real Undertale fan if you don’t play’_ , and I kept refusing to play for the sake of the joke, so, at some point… It had just become some silly game between us, and the first one who’d manage to make me play would win something or whatever. But Lys…”

 

@WinDows Gulim: Oh Glob, I’m so proud of you right now. How did you do it?

 

@BlueDoppler: Sometimes blackmail is for the greater good =)

 

The human had started to pace awkwardly in the room. He raised a bit his skull back towards her, still with a tense look, although this time it was for a different reason.

 

He _did_ just read the word “blackmail”, in a completely casual conversation at that. She had said that the people hiding behind these logs were her friends, and the context did make it sound like it was just meant to be taken as a joke — and the human he had right in front of him seemed to have taken it as a joke as well, at first. But… maybe “blackmail” wasn’t something to take so lightly when it could have such unexpected yet serious consequences.

 

“S-she cheated. So I didn’t want to play by the rules either. I was about to get my butt kicked anyway as soon as I’d start playing, so I just thought, why not give them _exactly_ what they want, right? I wanted to keep the Hard Mode as a surprise and see how long it’d take them to notice. I-I mean they didn’t want me to actually _play_ the game because we already all knew what the story was all about, we all just wanted to have a good laugh together, so I-I thought— I just th-thought I’d give them a good show, okay…?”

 

@Pineapplup: … °sigh° I guess I don’t have a choice uh.

@Yoshua: no u don’t :p

 

She had ended up as his target because of a stupid teenager game. Not even because she had wanted to play _Undertale_ on her own volition. Well, she had admitted that maybe she _had_ wanted to give it a try herself at some point, and maybe she _would_ have played under other conditions, but… She _did_ tell him the truth.

 

Sans lowered the phone and raised his skull to look at her. She looked like she was trying to keep her composure and her pacing act had surely been an attempt from her to control her anxiousness by releasing its energy in one form or another, but her entire body was shaking and her eyes were getting watery again. She looked like she was certain he wasn’t listening to her. Or caring to listen. Whoops.

 

“… you gotta be kiddin.” he eventually whispered, face-palming and muffling some embarrassed laugh.

 

She jumped at the sound of his voice, and her shaky legs almost seemed to give in for a second.

Wow, he _really_ had given her a much more serious scare than he had anticipated, hadn’t he…?

 

She turned towards him quickly, pivoting on her feet in one swift movement, although it was more because of a feeling of dread rather than an actual voluntary effect from her part. She looked like she could hardly believe what she had heard, and was now staring at him just to make sure that she hadn’t dreamed. He gave her a sheepish grin.

 

“ok. wow. i uh… wasn’t expectin that. never thought that sort of thing could… what even are the odds?”

 

“I-I know, right…?” she laughed in bewilderment. This was surreal. Maybe she had fainted again and this was all just a dream.

 

“well. uh.” He stared down at her phone and realized that he was still holding on to it. He also realized that he might have scrolled a little too far through the chat, because the application had seemed to freeze as it showed an error message. Something about not having any Wi-Fi connection available. Sighing, he quickly raised his arm towards her. “here. you might want that back.”

 

She merely stared at his hand in disbelief. When she noticed he wasn’t moving, she realized that he actually expected her to take it. So she swiftly raised a shaking arm and seized it by a corner between two fingers, then retracted her arm twice as fast.

 

“Yeah… Big misunderstanding, huh…?” she laughed awkwardly, looking away.

 

“… yeah. sorry.” He sighed again, looking away as well. “i thought the only type of person who’d have any interest in lying to me about ever playin the game were the ones who did… real bad things when they were in control. so i just… assumed that you were one of them.”

 

 _… So **that’s** what that was all about._

 

He thought she had gone through the Genocide Run and that she had tried to lie to him in order to evade the guilt of having murdered everyone.

 

Maybe he had thought that she was responsible for the timeline they were in right at the moment, if her hypothesis that they were currently stuck in the aftermath of a (failed) Genocide Run was true.

Maybe he even had thought that her denying that he could possibly be real had just been another act from her part and that she had known all along and just tried to… whatever it was he had thought her motives for doing something so stupid could have been.

No _wonder_ he had been so mad!

 

“so. uh… i guess i should be the one to apologize now? ‘specially for earlier…”

 

“D-don’t worry about it.” she muttered by reflex. “I understand. I’m. Just glad that’s settled.”

 

“heh… if you say so.” He paused for a small moment, looking to the side; but after a split second, he gave her a dorky grin. “uh… h-how about we start over and pretend this never happened?”

 

She saw a bony hand raise towards her in a jolt, and she shivered. She stared at it for a few seconds, before shaking herself out of her trance and staring at him instead.

He saw her timidly raise her left arm to shake his, but her hand was quaking and he was certain her face wasn’t supposed to look _that_ white. Instead of shaking his hand in return though, she suddenly retracted hers and rolled it around her legs, burying her head between her knees.

 

“I’d like that.” She smiled shyly and gave him a weak and sheepish glance, but her tone was genuine.

 

Sans watched her behavior with a puzzled look, but he simply shrugged and brought his arm back onto his lap with a light chuckle. Was she shy or scared that he’d pull the whoopee cushion prank?

 

“I’m, uh. Dawn, by the way.”

 

“yeah, they mentioned your name on that thing.” he nodded vaguely. “i _would_ introduce myself too, but… you know how it is.”

 

They both laughed. Then stopped. That was awkward.

 

The human lowered her gaze, resting her chin on her knees and wrapping her arms around them. Sans saw her send him some quick glances, but she would never speak up. At some point he tried to encourage her to say what she had in mind, and although she seemed reluctant, she eventually gulped and sent him a sad and empathetic look.

 

“I was wondering… For how long have you known…?”

 

“about the game? well…” He sighed deeply, staring at the void. “it’s hard to keep track of time from _this_ side, y’know, so i don’t think i could give you a real answer. still, i really found out that you guys existed pretty recently, i’ll admit…” he shrugged.

 

She looked down.

 

“but, uh, when you see that time keeps jumpin’ back and forth and that the only thing that changes between loops is that the kid does some weird new stuff every time, it’s not too hard to figure that something’s not right with’em. that something… took over at some point.” A stiff chuckle burst from him, but it was quickly silenced. “y’know, it would’ve been much faster if the game weren’t erasing most of my research every time one of you wanted to play. it gets old to try to keep up and redo everything from scratch. makes you want to just give up after a certain point.”

 

Yeah… That part wasn’t really new, but there still was a huge difference between thinking of it as a fictional character’s depressing demise nobody could do anything about, and… actually facing said fictional character voicing this very same situation.

 

“… Wait a minute.” She gave him a shocked and desperately horrified look. “Are y-you implying that you _can_ remember the Resets?”

 

“the _what_?” He raised a non-existent eyebrow in intense confusion. The befuddled face she made probably made him realize that she actually _expected_ him to know, so he thought a little more about it. “oh… wait. did you mean ‘time jump’? t-that’s how we’ve been callin’ them down here, heh eh.”

 

She blinked in deep puzzlement. That was… new.

Then again, she didn’t specifically remember the word ‘Reset’ having been used in the game at any other point than the main menu or Flowey’s dialogue, so maybe she was just influenced by headcanons and alternate versions. She hadn’t watched an actual playthrough in a while, so her memory was fuzzy when it came to telling apart ‘canon’ and ‘fanon’ regarding such minor details in terminology.

 

“Well, uh… Y-yeah. That’s how we refer to it in the game, and, i-in general too. It’s a ‘Reset’ when you restart the game from the beginning, and it’s a ‘Reload’ if you go back to the last SAVE file, but don’t actually erase _all_ of your progress in the game.”

 

“… that does make it sound like it’s a video game thing alright. yikes.”

 

Maybe that explained why they _wouldn’t_ have thought of using such term, or even been reluctant to, if they ever considered the option. Since, under their perspective, it _wasn’t_ a video game. Ugh…

 

“anyway, to answer your question… yeah. not always been the case, but at some point i managed to manually save my memories, so now i keep’em every time there’s a, uh, ‘reset’, as you say.”

 

“The game…” She stopped there and bit her lip, looking down. But when Sans gave her a silent nod to ask her to continue, she took a short breath. “The game made it look like you couldn’t remember. I just… I had no idea. _We_ had no idea that this was…”

 

He had been trapped all this time. She used to think that all these scenarios where he would keep track of everything and never be happy because of old memories and traumatisms were just the material of fanfiction and drama-inducing stories the fandom had made up, but…

 

The worst part was. Since nobody had ever noticed him going off script at _any_ point. Was he just… literally playing his part over and over? Why? Was he afraid of what would happen to him if the ‘Anomaly’ realized that he was out of the loop? She did remember having read a few stories where Sans was given even more attention and misery on purpose, just because he could remember everything but couldn’t do anything… Was that it?

 

This only made her feel even sadder for him, because she was certain that if he _had_ gone off-script and that anyone noticed… This would have had much bigger consequences than he could imagine, that much was true; but she was convinced that instead of leading to consequences _against_ him… It would only have made the players realize sooner. Maybe his situation could have been solved _earlier_ if he had just… let them know.

 

But then again… How _could_ he have given them any trust at all, after what they had done?

 

“heh… don’t worry about it. i mean, ok that sucked more than you could imagine. but… it’ll be over soon, now. that’s why i brought you here.”

Right. He had a plan. And the plan involved using a ‘player’ to some extent… What for, though? He had yet to say anything about it, he hadn’t even gotten started or looked in any rush… Could his plan be already foiled since he discovered that she had never played? No, no, he just said that he was confident he could still end the problem. But then again… what _was_ his plan? Did it have something to do with her being now a part of the game and getting her own in-game ‘SOUL’ and game stats…? Wait, was that it? Did he want to do something with her _soul_?

 

Maybe she had appeared to become a little too nervous or even fearful, because the skeleton continued, this time in a much more anxious tone:

 

“whoa hey, don’t start gettin’ the wrong idea.” He had immediately raised his hands in defense and tried to wave them in a pacifying way. He took a short break, then lowered them and laid them on his lap, as he slightly bent forward and smiled slightly. “this isn’t for revenge or anythin’, if that’s what you were worried about. i specifically needed one of you to be here for my plan, but you’ll get to go back safe and sound as soon as i’m done. promise.”

 

She blinked in confusion. That was… reassuring? Well, she hadn’t _exactly_ thought he would have spent too much effort in bringing a player if it were _just_ for the sake of getting his revenge, but still, she hadn’t exactly expected him to bring her just for chats either. Neither had she expected him to be so… _calm_ about all this mess.

 

And she certainly hadn’t expected him to **_promise_** anything to someone he had literally just met. That could only mean that he was dead serious with this, but… wow. He really must be pretty confident of his plan, at this point. Which was a sign of great news, she reasoned.

 

“You’re…” She discreetly shook her head so she could put her thoughts back in order. “I’m just… surprised? Happy? Confused? I-I don’t know. You s-seem to be taking it so well… I m-mean, you’re not mad about all this? Not even a little?”

“nah… that’s not really my thing.” He just shrugged. Of course. “i mean, uh. as long as nobody blatantly takes me for an idiot and shakes the guilt of accidentally murderin’ people like if it didn’ matter to them, that is.” His eye-sockets twitched in a funny way and he raised a sheepish grin. “s-sorry again for jumpin to conclusions.”

 

“Again, no worries.” she muttered with a shy strained smile, looking down.

 

“so, uh… i guess i _was_ a bit mad when i figured that i had not just _one_ sicko to look out for but, like, a few thousands or something. but… actually? when i saw that you literally had no idea what was going on… it became pretty hard to be mad at any of you.”

 

His left hand went in the back of his skull and scratched his neck. The rattling sound made her shiver again and she forcefully closed her eyes and turned her head away.

 

“i mean, if you were just thinking that none of it was real and that you weren’t hurting anybody, then… heh. it just meant that no matter how bad things went down here… nobody was crazy enough to _actually_ do it on purpose, y’know?”

 

He was smiling. It looked sad, but it also was a… strangely serene smile. He almost looked… actually relieved?

 

Nonetheless, she simply could not return the same expression. Part of her wanted to stop beating herself up about it because she had not _actively_ contributed to his misery and because he was saying himself that it was over, so she feared that countering his opinion or even just talking too much about this topic could break this incongruous serenity of his and bring him back to a storm of feelings and all the potential trauma he had been through… But all at the same time, she simply could hardly understand how he had ever managed to reach this state of peace in the first place.

She was no psychologist, but… she was not sure whether or not it was healthy for him.

Besides, as far as she knew, it _could_ just be a mask, whether he wanted to fool the others or himself.

Either way… this wouldn’t be the first time.

 

“anyway. i guess you’re still wonderin’ what you’re doin here.” he said, as if he just remembered that he had somewhat forgotten to answer this question… or as if he just wanted to close their previous conversation and clumsily brushed the subject aside. “might be time to actually answer that. heh.”

 

“You want to stop the Players from accessing the game… Right?”

 

He seemed surprised by her deduction, but soon his smile expanded ever so slightly and she heard a forced chuckle. He seemed impressed? He _had_ complimented her over her observation skills, but it didn’t quite fit with his tone…

Oh, wait. Maybe he was just taken aback by how she had predicted him so easily.

When she realized just how self-conscious he had to be since he knew just how much _she_ knew about the game and himself, Dawn bit her tongue. Maybe she should watch her words and try to stop anticipating his actions every now and again. That was creepy.

 

“i… i want to stop your actions in the game from interfering here at least, that much’s for sure. i don’t know what consequences there’d be for your game, but, uh… sorry, i just really don’t care about that part. heh.”

 

Yeah, she couldn’t exactly blame him for that. If the game became unusable due to his plan, the _Undertale_ fandom would whine about it for a while, but they would live.

She vastly preferred taking a toy away from them rather than endangering _actual lives_.

 

“anyway. that’s exactly what bringin’ you here was supposed to do.”

 

“Yeah…? That’s the part I don’t exactly understand here.” she muttered uneasily. “I want to help, of course, but… What do you want me to do, exactly?”

“well, the principle is that, as one of those players… now that you’re here, you have the possibility to control the timeline however you want. basically.”

 

“W-we can only do that by pressing the game’s buttons though,” she replied anxiously. Did he expect her to have that ability _naturally_? “I don’t think I could do any of that without having access to the—”

 

“the game’s not the problem. at least, not anymore.” he countered, shaking his skull calmly and smirking confidently while staring intently at her.

 

She stared back with a blank look. She was not sure she really followed what he was implying here. She _would_ know if she just happened to have the magical ability to randomly warp time into infinite loops, wouldn’t she? And there was no way she would just like that develop that power out of nowhere… _Right?_

 

Wait. If she was a player, and if she thought again of all this _Matrix_ logic… If he had arranged everything to bring her here, he could probably have ‘programmed’ her stats however he wanted. So maybe he just gave her that ability literally by typing numbers on a keyboard or something…?

 

“you know what makes human souls so special, don’t you?” He had uttered this as a regular question, even if he explicitly stated that he knew the answer. Still, he continued: “determination. and let’s say that yours, along with any of the other players, is _much_ stronger than the average around here.”

 

… _Oooor_ that. That could work too. It all came down to ‘determination’, then…? Huh. Well she _was_ a human, so of course she was expected to have that to some extent according to the game’s lore.

 

“so now that you’re in a world where your soul has an actual physicality…” His look intensified, as he glared at her and made sure to catch her full attention. “you should be strong enough to steal power from the game itself.”

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to make a point of not publishing chapters longer than 10,000 words, because I know that this is one thing that for some reason I have trouble NOT doing. Still, I understand that even though you usually come here to read in the first place, everybody can have an indigestion pretty fast :/ So... I can't make too many promises, but whenever I notice that my chapters are getting extra long and I can find a way to cut them, I will. Hence the "Scene 2.1" in the title. The next chapter won't be Scene 3, but "Scene 2.2", aka the end of Scene 2.


	3. Act 1, Scene 2.2

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 2.2

###  [» Read the PDF version here! «](https://drive.google.com/file/d/161mtvMh1aLJBC8kTq6arMTnJzThv5GA4/view)

###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/183426264547/act-i-scene-22)

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* * *

“so now that you’re in a world where your soul has an actual physicality… you should be strong enough to steal power from the game itself.”

 

She gasped in silence, but then kept this air inside of her lungs as she found herself unable to release it. Everything had seemed to fall into place, to such extent and at such velocity, she started to feel nauseated.

After a few seconds though, she slowly calmed down… and suddenly she repressed a burst of cynical laughter. Of course _not_ , there simply was _no way_. She would never be _determined_ enough. Not _her_. He would never make her buy that one. Hilarious. What made him think that?

 

He seemed to be completely certain of what he was saying, so she was willing to believe him; but the mere idea of thinking of herself as ‘determined’ felt… strange. She could stand her ground when necessary, but… that was pretty much it. She was nowhere as determined as what the game seemed to define the word as.

 

“I… wow.”

 

She took a few seconds to blink repeatedly and try to put her thoughts back in order. She was particularly curious to learn _how_ he could have learned about the power of a ‘player’s’ soul without having ever seen one before.

Alphys had needed to see human souls directly in order to learn just about the _existence_ of determination, so… How did he do it without even having any player anywhere near? As far as she knew, he definitely hadn’t kidnapped anyone else before her in order to dissect their soul. Just the thought of such thing made her feel sick. Good thing she really couldn’t figure him doing anything like this.

 

“So… I can Reset. Okay.” She still needed to hear herself say it in order to fully believe it, although she kept lowering her head and blinking at the void. “But… What’s the next step? Why did you, uh… ‘give’ me that power to begin with?”

 

She heard him chuckle again: apparently, it pleased him to have her ask so many questions. He turned his skull and used it to point towards the end of the room, but before he could say anything, he seemed to realize that since the basement was still stuck in the dark, they could not see what he was trying to point.

 

“… hm. does the, ah, ‘game’, tell you anything about an old machine that’s supposed to be in this room?”

 

“Oh! You mean you’re going to fix it?” she deduced.

 

She had no idea which theories were true about what this machine was about and all the potential links they had found, but… Part of her guiltily thought that she finally had the chance to actually learn the truth.

From Sans himself, at that! As much as she tried to tone down her enthusiasm for his sake, it was just undeniable that this was incredibly cool.

 

“well… yeah. that’s the plan.”

 

He scratched the back of his spine in embarrassment again and the rattling sound made her shiver again. Whoops. She _really_ should learn to hold her tongue, dang it…

She heard a deep inhale, then a sigh. Was he doing it just for show, or…? She had trouble imagining how a skeleton could possibly breathe. The fandom had made a lot of headcanons about how the skeleton biology could work, but whenever things like this were mentioned in the game, it was made clear that skeletons just… didn’t have any of these things at all.

When Sans continued his explanations, once again he sounded much more serious.

 

“basically, this machine was built so that, if it’s given enough power, it can control the timeline. that means it offers the possibility to go back in time whenever we program it, and it’s even able to bring stuff and people along with it.” She saw him slightly hang his skull and look to the side. “but, eh, you’d think that after so many time travels, that’s not really the part i’m focusing on.”

 

The contrary would have surprised her. If all he wanted was a Reset, since he had already been through all the trouble to bring her here to begin with, he could have just asked her to do it for him. But yeah, apparently that sounded like the thing he wanted to _avoid_ … After all, it was beyond obvious that these time shenanigans had already ruined his life countless times.

 

“So what else can it do…?” If it wasn’t this specific ability he was interested in, it had to be another.

 

“it’s the same ability as anyone who’s in charge of the timeline. and it’s the same reason why i brought you here.” She perked her head up in surprise at that last sentence. “if you’re the ‘most determined’ thing or being in the universe at a given time, it doesn’t only mean that you can control the timeline. it also means that you stop everyone else from doing so.”

 

… Oh. So _that_ was what her role was about.

She was the shield. A Reset-proof living barrier.

 

“You mean that as long as I’m here, nobody can Reset the game.”

 

“exactly. best thing is, you’re already doing it right now. just by standing here. even if you’re doing nothing, you’re still contributing. ‘sides, i specifically need you to stay alive and in good shape for this to work, so it’s to everyone’s benefit, right?” he smiled. “theoretically i guess keepin’ you here forever _should_ be enough to do the trick, but, eh, i’m sure you want to go home. so that’s why fixin’ the machine will be a more permanent solution.”

 

He chuckled at that, but it sounded a little more awkward than the previous times. She decided to just shrug jokingly and give him a patient smile.

 

“so… the plan was to get you here, fix the machine, send you back, and then go back for the last time ever and get us all to the surface.” he concluded.

 

She nodded and hummed in both understanding and admiration. It was a simple plan, but she didn’t see any obvious flaw in its simplicity. Well, apart from the part where they would have to actually fix the machine, but since Sans said it had been fully functional at some point, why wouldn’t they succeed again?

 

She believed in his plan. It might take a while to actually reach the last step; but they would succeed, and they would bring everyone the Happy Ending they deserved.

 

“anyway, uh…” He now seemed back to his friendly and slightly dorky side, although he appeared a little… tense? Anxious? “i hope i can trust you not to do anything stupid with your time powers, now.”

 

“Of _course_ not!” She seemed almost offended he could even _think_ of bringing up the subject, but she might have expressed her thoughts a little too indignantly when she saw him stiffen and sink a little in his chair. She immediately cowered back in the sofa. “I-I mean, uhh, even if I _wanted_ to Reset or something like that, I don’t even know _how_ that’s supposed to work from here. So, either way, I’m positive you have nothing to worry about.”

 

“… heh. right.” He had appeared to squint his eye-sockets in an indecipherable manner. He didn’t seem to distrust her anymore, but… apparently, he still found the need to add a small precision: “i mean, even if you did that, that’d be pretty stupid. if you erase this timeline, you’ll erase your ride home too, so… i wouldn’t do that if i were you.”

 

… Right. That too. She still had no idea _how_ he had brought her inside the game, but she was certain that it involved a device that had _not_ always been available to him, and it had probably taken him a _while_ to build it in the first place.

 

A heavy silence fell, during which she tried to process everything that had been said so far. It appeared to her as simple and logical, but… if only on the emotional side, that was already a lot more to take in. There were so many implications to the game being real, and…

 

“I… I had another question.” She hesitated again, but once again Sans gestured her to continue with a calm nod. “How did you figure out all this?”

 

The dorky cheerfulness in his pupils seemed to fade instantly. They wandered around for a few seconds as she heard him take another deep breath, but he quickly answered nonetheless.

 

“let’s… say that’s the tricky part.” he chuckled tensely, as he seemed to be avoiding her look. “that’s some kind of work i started in a previous timeline and… _somehow_ , i don’t remember the details of how i came across those discoveries for the first time. those plans just happened to survive the last time jumps. my computer here can still ‘save’ virtual data, like blueprints or… well, that’s also what i use to save my memory, actually; so that’s where i eventually found the plans too.”

 

He decided against saying it out loud because he didn’t want her to worry and go back to her paranoia mode from earlier, but… He had to admit, that was suspicious. It was pretty fishy that some data from a certain timeline could have been saved, while some _other_ data from the exact same timeline — say, _his memory_ — had not been retained for some reason, by the very same device that was supposed to save both without making any difference.

Now that he could stop worrying about having his work potentially erased due to time being rewound without warning, and now that he could actually focus his energy and thought on basically anything else…

That was fishy. That was extremely fishy.

 

“they do look really familiar, and that old thing only responds to my magic signature, so i’m sure i’m the only one who could’ve possibly done the calculations and the spectrum measures at some point anyway. but as for the details of how i got the idea to make THAT kind of measures in the first place… sorry, can’t help ya.” He gave her a half-reassured look and added: “don’t worry though, i redid them all just in case, during _this_ timeline, and i got the same results. i mean… you’d figure i wouldn’t accept that the anomaly comes from a video game unless i got some REAL proof, right…?”

 

For the first time, Dawn actually started to doubt him. She felt like he was hiding something from her, and yet this ‘thing’ he was hiding from her was not so hard to figure out. What he had just said was not making much sense; she didn’t know how this ‘saving’ thing worked at all, so maybe the contradiction she saw was simply due to a similar misunderstanding to the one during which Sans believed she had lied to him, but…

 _He_ knew how the full mechanisms worked, and _he_ was finding this suspicious too. Had it been… dangerous to bring her here without having solved this contradiction first?

 

Some people are just too smart for their own good.

 

She seemed on the verge of asking him for further details and explanations, but an unexpected event stopped her before she even had the time to open her mouth.

 

The neon lights on the ceiling started flickering, and after a few seconds, they remained lit.

They both stared at the ceiling in surprise for a short moment, but the monster was the first to properly react. Then again, although a relieved wide grin appeared on his face, he didn’t turn his gaze away from the lights.

“finally. they really got me worried there.”

 

The human directed a pair of confused eyes towards him— and they instantly froze in place.

 

This was the first time she _actually_ could see him fully, in all his real details, under a full light. She… wasn’t certain of what she had been expecting, really. He didn’t look nearly as terrifying as he did before when they were both stuck in the dark; nonetheless, this sight was… _puzzling_.

 

Somehow, although she thought she _should_ have been prepared for this by now, seeing a skeleton moving fully on its own was still quite a shock; and now that she could see all of his subtle movements with an enhanced precision, the contrast between the life that was so obviously infused in him and the so obviously non-organic bones…

The strangest part was the fact that she simply couldn’t tell whether these bones were solid or not; it was almost as if their texture changed constantly depending on whether he wanted them to move or not… Was that how magic bodies worked? Purely through the monster’s intent? Given the fact that the game said their bodies were attuned to their souls, maybe that was literally it.

Still, she just… couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that his skull looked like _hard, solid bone_ , and yet he could shift its shape just however he wanted it, _somehow_. And wait, it looked like his chest was rising and falling— was he _actually_ breathing? _How?!_ He didn’t have lungs, did he…?

 

“you okay there, bud?”

 

She jerked awake from her trance and felt her cheeks start to slowly redden in embarrassment. Of course he had caught her staring.

 

“S-sorry. I was just…” Okay she _really_ didn’t want to bring that sort of uncomfortable topic. She decided she should instead change the subject and pointed towards the ceiling. “What just happened?”

 

“i guess alphys finally managed to reboot the core. i, uh… i think i _maaaaay_ have overloaded it pretty badly when i used my machine to bring you here. got me worried for a while that, uh… the damage might’ve been too serious and it could’ve… well. let’s just say we’re lucky that didn’t happen.”

 

… Yikes. So it wasn’t _just_ a local blackout. He had caused a nationwide power outage _just_ by kidnapping her. _Wow_.

 

Sans stood up from his chair, then walked towards his desk. After turning off the now useless desk lamp, he started arranging a few papers into piles, went to check how badly his computer had taken the shutdown, sighed in relief at some point— it looked like nothing too bad had happened to its system or files, fortunately. When she remembered that he had said this was the same device responsible for keeping his data and memory safe throughout the Resets, she felt all the more relieved for him.

She hesitated at first, but when curiosity won over her nervousness, she eventually stood up herself and quietly walked towards the desk, observing from afar.

 

“Can I help with something?” He blinked in surprise, then turned his skull towards her with two wide perplexed pellets.

 

“oh, you’re…” He stopped himself before he could say the legendary _‘ still here?’_ and completely sound like the dorky scientist cliché, as he suddenly felt self-conscious and stupid. Of course, where else would she have gone anyway? So instead, he added: “nah, don’t worry, i got this. don’t think you could help with much anyway. you wouldn’t happen to have a degree in magic entanglement physics, would you?”

 

“No, not really…” She knew he had meant it as a joke, yet she looked down in shame and disappointment.

 

“i mean. magic isn’t even supposed to be a thing where you come from. right?” She wanted to ask him how he could even know that to begin with, but he wasn’t looking at her, so he completely ignored her startled look. “you know, it’s… funny. you’re taking all this a lot better than i expected. well, not that i’m gonna complain ‘bout that.”

“I’m… pretty much just doing my best not to freak out right now.” she laughed meekly with a strained smirk. “But seriously, if there’s something I _can_ do, don’t hesitate to tell me. I know I can’t exactly make calculations like you and I’d understand if you didn’t want to see me anywhere near your machine, but…”

 

“you can keep chattin’ if you want. doesn’t bother me.” he chuckled sincerely. He couldn’t help but sigh and add in a melancholic yet hopeful mutter: “it’s… nice to finally have a real chat, for a change.”

 

Oh crap. He had sounded almost _happy_ when saying that, but it only made the realization all the more heartbreaking when it struck.

 

Ever since the beginning, he had been stuck in numerous time loops during which he was the only one ever remembering that anything was wrong, and worst of all, he had forced himself to keep the act no matter what. He must have been so lonely and hopeless…

No wonder having someone completely new around him, someone who could also empathize with his situation if ever so slightly, had such surprising effect on him. She was finally starting to better understand why he had become so chatty and friendly all of a sudden.

 

At first, she had assumed that he was just keeping the attitude he would mention during his fight in the Genocide run: that he would force himself to befriend the ‘Anomaly’ in order to get on its good side. This would have been sad, but almost… _expected_ , coming from him.

But now… Just then, with this one sentence, she finally realized that it wasn’t even about that anymore. She had seemed to regain his trust as soon as he had been proved that she had been honest all along; and from that moment onwards, he had opened up so easily to her…

Maybe he just _genuinely_ needed someone he could have a nice chat with? He wasn’t answering _all_ the questions she had, but he didn’t seem to mind her being in what was supposed to be the most secret place he owned; and if it truly contained the machine he used to save his memory, this was also the place that made him the _most vulnerable_.

This really had to mean that he trusted her; and he did so to an extent she would have never thought possible of him.

 

Maybe he was just so tired… he didn’t even care about secrets anymore. He _was_ thinking that this was going to be the end. Just by looking at him, and knowing that he could remember the Resets— he had definitely seen the Surface at some point. He had explicitly stated that this was his ultimate goal. Reach the Surface, settle a new life, and finally move on along with everyone. So… Maybe he just wanted to get most of his burdens over with before leaving.

He would have enough physical weight to move to the Surface anyway; the psychological ones that weren’t needed were better left behind in the Underground.

 

She had stayed by his side for the first few minutes, but soon enough, watching him in silence started to get boring, especially since she could hardly understand what he was writing down. Part of her was surprised when she realized that she couldn’t see any trace of Wingdings anywhere and that his handwriting didn’t look like Comic Sans at all, but then again, his blueprints and scribbles didn’t need to be written in an illegible font to be nearly indecipherable.

 

… Also, after bending like this for too long, her neck might eventually get a crick.

So she silently left him at his work, contemplating the rest of the room for a bit. Before she knew it, she was just a few feet away from the purplish curtain that was supposed to cover what was implied by the game to be an old busted machine of some kind. So, this was the infamous machine he had mentioned earlier? And his plan involved fixing it…

 

She still wanted to avoid getting too close to it. Despite what Sans had said, she deeply felt like she was intruding; and she was certain that this machine in particular…

She was certain he wouldn’t have actually wanted her anywhere near it, under more normal circumstances — if he didn’t think that she knew about his secrets already.

The game’s canon and the theories she had read implied that this machine held some deep connection with him; maybe it had some sentimental value, or it represented something potentially depressing in his past…

Maybe it was completely irrelevant. Or maybe it had to do with the elusive Dr. W. D. Gaster and his tragic demise.

 

She was in the most perfect place if she wanted answers to her questions, and the best part of it was that Sans seemed to be willing to answer practically _all_ of them, as long as she bothered to openly ask them.

But… It wasn’t fair. As much as curiosity ate her from the inside, she just couldn’t bring herself to ask _too_ much.

 

Maybe the reason he was answering her questions had nothing to do with him _actually_ wanting to talk about it: the real reason could be anything. Maybe her being human _and_ the newest Anomaly made him wary or intimidated by her and he thought that satisfying her curiosity was the best way to stay on her good side and keep her from potentially abusing her time-related powers for whatever reasons. Maybe he had become so nihilistic, he thought that it was pointless to try to keep anything from her since she already knew way more than she should and could just as well piece everything together if she became nosy, so maybe answering everything right off the bat would prevent her from _being_ nosy and potentially start messing with his things… She did not bother trying to find other reasons he could have thought about, and there was a very simple _reason_ for this:

 

These were all _terrible_ reasons to have him talk about his problems.

 

“you can remove the blanket if you want, you know. i think it just _might_ make it easier to look at it.”

 

She shrieked in surprise, jumping about three feet to her side. _Somehow_ , Sans had appeared right next to her without warning, literally coming out of nowhere, and he had taken that opportunity to give her a giant grin and _did he just meme her?_

 

As soon as he saw her terrified expression and heard her scream though, his grin literally melted away. As much as his permanent grin could fade, at least; it was a very subtle shift, just noticeable enough to show that he had actually stopped smiling.

Dawn mimed some coughing before apologizing for overreacting, muttering she just wasn’t used to people teleporting around her, but it had sounded like she was dismissing the actual reason behind her fright, somehow. He sent her a confused look, but soon his pupils flashed with a wave of understanding, and… actual guilt? They darted in the opposite direction, running away from her.

 

“… did i _really_ spook you that badly?”

 

He had sounded so… small. The sheepish and strained smile on his face, and the way he had shifted his skull away from her, made her realize that he was actually _blaming himself_ for her reaction. Did he think that he had gone too far? But this was just a prank! And it was _her_ fault for being so easily startled by such obvious and cheap tricks.

She didn’t remember him pulling _that_ specific one in the game, but given all the other jokes he did, everyone could, and _had_ imagined him doing it at some point.

 

The fanon had definitely made a lot of comics or jokes where he would appear out of nowhere in order to scare people and make it sound like he had been watching them all along. She thought most of the situations where that joke would happen were cases where someone had wronged Papyrus in some hilarious and stupid way, like accidentally swearing in his presence or telling him the truth about his spaghetti. This was never a prank meant to be taken seriously, and this was certainly not a prank he was supposed to feel _bad_ for.

 

“O-oh, uh,” She was stuttering. She hated when she couldn’t stop her stuttering. “I just t-tend to be affected even b-by the cheapest jump-scares… Even when they’re obvious, they always get me, and everyone else laughs ‘cause it makes me look stupid…”

“i, uh… i meant earlier.”

 

 _What do you mean earli— oh._

 

Right… That moment when gravity had gave in and she had been given the front row seats to a wonderful prelude of Sans’s infamous bad time, had he been actually serious with his threats. Okay, _maybe_ she still had trouble erasing these horrifying images from her memory even though they had both agreed not to talk about that event ever again and to deny it had ever occurred.

 

“you… really seemed to take it a lot harder than i thought you would.” he eventually muttered. “guess it took you off guard ‘cause you really had no idea what i was doin that for, but even then…”

 

… Of course he had noticed. Even before she had realized herself, at that.

 

His pupils slightly flashed to a cyan color for a split second as he stared at her chest. The small glowing orbs hadn’t changed in form or size and the effect only lasted for a second before they returned to their usual white and he turned his skull away from her, but a shiver had still crawled its way up her spine against her volition.

 

“I… W-well okay it’s not j-just that. But it’s n-not your fault. I’ve just always… had t-trouble with things related to…” She gulped. She _really_ didn’t want to have that discussion right now. “It’s… L-look it’s pretty embarrassing and it’s r-really not important.”

 

“aw, c’mon.” he retorted jokingly. “t’s not like i could tell anyone you know ‘bout it.” He winked and nudged her jokingly, but she stiffened slightly and unconsciously when his elbow invaded her personal space. His smile dropped as soon as he noticed and he swiftly retracted his arm in response.

 

“Let’s… j-just say there’s a reason why I _really_ can’t watch horror movies.” She was desperately trying to avoid his look but somehow her eyes couldn’t help but go back to staring at him every time she managed to pull them away from him, as if she were anxiously dreading his reaction.

 

Her answer hadn’t seemed to give him as many clues as she had imagined. He pondered her sentence for a bit, but then he appeared to reach a conclusion, whether correct or erroneous. And then he just _had_ to ask that question.

“you mean it has to do with ‘evil scary monsters’ or some stuff like that?” Funnily, he didn’t seem offended by the idea. Almost amused, actually. Or just confused. It was hard to read his expression. “i uh, don’t actually know what humans put in their horror shows. ‘specially ones from another world where magic doesn’t exist. are ‘evil monsters’ stories a thing?”

 

“Uh, I-I guess so, but… I mean…” Okay that was becoming _way_ too embarrassing and she felt like she really would not find any way to change the topic by now. Just peachy. She was starting to feel her entire face redden and get warmer by the second and she really just wanted to wrap this up by now.

 

“i wonder what stupid stuff you could’ve thought about.” he stated out loud. And he was grinning. Okay now he was just doing this to mess with her, she knew it, and dang it this was making her look ridiculous and he _loved_ it. “if magic doesn’t exist, then what sort of stuff could give you ideas for horror stories? unless you don’t need magic to still think about the possibility? guess that’d explain how you still get what’s going on around here even if you don’t know much about the concepts from this reality.”

 

“No, look, you just don’t…”

 

She was face-palming with both hands as an attempt to hide her face in shame, now almost as red as her flannel shirt. He nudged her again, this time more gently than the time before, once more encouraging her to tell him, because if he had been sharing some of his secrets with her it was only right for her to return the favor and _God damn it what a troll_.

Oh for Pete’s sake what the hell she’d just say it and get it over with already.

 

“I can’t stand stuff related to DEATH.” Her arms flung around in exasperation. “Okay? Corpses, blood, that stuff, it’s always creeped me out and I even started to see a _therapist_ three years ago in order to try and tone it down because that’s a completely stupid thing to be scared of. _Happy now?_ ”

 

He just… blinked. The revelation appeared to take a few seconds before it sank in… Ooh, _right_. Now that he was thinking back of his time on the Surface, that sort of behavior did ring a bell.

 

“i… already was a skeleton even back when you were watchin the game, right? i mean ok you didn’t play it, but you still knew a lot of stuff so you must’ve—”

 

“Yes-I-know-and-I’m-sorry-to-tell-you-that-but-you-just really don’t look like the game sprite or the fanarts and OH MY GOD I’m sorry that’s REALLY NOT how I wanted to put it.”

 

Sans watched the human scowl in embarrassment and bury her head in her arms while spinning away from him overdramatically, and at first he couldn’t help but laugh at her childish demeanor. But then, as he managed to regain control over his breathing, he started to realize.

Maybe she just… _wasn’t_ actually done with the existential crisis problem, now that he was taking a moment to think about it. Hadn’t she mentioned that she was still “trying her best not to freak out”, just a few minutes earlier? Yeah, that was what she had said…

 

“Look.” She buried her head back in her hands and sighed. “I… I’m sure I’m just a bit on edge because of everything that happened, and now I’m overreacting and you must be thinking I’m acting stupid or— i-is specism a thing? I-I’m n-not… but… Ugh. You don’t… I-it’s really not so bad. You looked a lot scarier in the dark is all. A-and I’m sure the ‘blue-light-from-under-your-face’ trick didn’t help when I was in the air and…” Her eye twitched awkwardly. “But. That was earlier. Just– g-gimme some time. It’ll get better. So… C-can we just drop that conversation now? _Please_?”

 

He tilted his skull towards her, studying her in silence. She pursed her lips and felt her face blush once more, so she forcedly looked away and tried to take deep breaths. That made him chuckle bluntly once more, she gave him an embarrassed yet betrayed look, and he apologized, now laughing twice as hard as he shook his skull.

 

“heh… ok, if you insist. but… joke aside? you really don’t need to beat yourself over it _that_ much. i’ve been on the surface before, so i’ve seen how humans react to us in general. and _these_ humans were already used to magic. to some extent.” She sent him a shy look. His smile grew a bit, as he shrugged jokingly. “before we met… i can’t exactly say i hadn’t seen it coming. even if you knew me already, i guess some things just can’t be helped.”

 

She sighed guiltily. “I guess humankind isn’t exactly known for its tolerance, huh? Not that I’m putting any good example right now…” she muttered in shame.

 

“ _naaaaaah_. honestly, you’re not doing too bad. ‘specially if it’s some phobia material you were talkin’ about. hard to believe you have one at all.”

 

“Well I _did_ get over my fear of Halloween decorations two years ago.” she smirked. Then when she saw his confused expression she realized that he probably didn’t know what ‘Halloween’ was. “Uuh… I just meant to say, i-it’s obvious that you’re alive and all, and that’s what counts. As long as I don’t see anything die or already dead, things should be fine.”

 

This time, his chuckling had sounded a lot darker and forced. Her smile dropped.

 

… She suddenly remembered what she had previously theorized regarding the outcome of the timeline they were currently in. Then again, she had reached that conclusion through assuming that Sans could _not_ remember the Resets, so maybe…

 

“good thing you’re late to the show, then.”

 

There was a long and tense pause.

 

“What… happened exactly?” She gulped in anticipation. “Which timeline is this? A-am I saying it right…?”

“i killed Frisk.” His pupils darkened and darted away, his skull tilting down in shame. His expression seemed to be composed of sadness, concern, relief…? She was not really sure how she should interpret it. “… t’was around a month ago.”

 

There was only one way it could have been possible for him to do that. A strong silence filled the room. Her stomach sank and she bit her bottom lip, but she didn’t give him any noticeable reaction to his speech. A few seconds later though, her head tilted in sudden realization:

 

“But… wait. I-if Frisk died, then what happened to their soul? I m-mean, that makes your remaining seventh human soul, right…? And, you killed them before they killed Asgore, so… Did he break the Barrier or something?”

 

“no. the kid’s soul disintegrated a few seconds after their death, as usual.”

 

She gave him a blank look, but then remembered the way ‘Game overs’ worked and how the little red heart would indeed _shatter_ each time the player’s HP reached zero. That was… strange, and sad for them, but… She wasn’t sure what to think of such situation, she realized.

Was Frisk actually ‘alive’ the same way Sans and the others were? They never were in control of anything during the game, not even of their own body as it seemed, so it was hard to tell. In fact, seeing how they were the one being permanently controlled either by the player or by Chara, she _hoped_ that they didn’t have that sort of sentience the other monsters did.

 

Even if they appeared to live in a virtual world and as such could only be ‘artificial intelligences’ of some kind, Sans had proven to her that their emotions and feelings were very real. Being forced to be sentient yet not having any possibility to do _anything_ at all… Well, she had read a few fanfics about this kind of situation already, and no matter the quality of these fanfics, the tragedy they described could easily be empathized and lamented about.        . When she thought over the situation under a purely logical perspective, however, she rationalized that this situation, while not impossible, would feel _unnecessary_.

 

Although she was not herself a specialist when it came to programming and data manipulation, one thing she was certain about was that if something was _unnecessary_ in a program, that feature was either dummied out, or entirely removed. If Frisk were always meant to be the player’s avatar, she thought it to be unlikely for Toby Fox to specifically think of a personality and personal life for them, even if it was to be dummied out afterwards.

 

So… Part of her felt reassured when she managed to convince herself that, unlike the monsters, it was very likely that Frisk was an _actual_ robot, or some kind of empty shell ready to be taken over by the players. This also would mean that whenever the monsters were killing them… Well, unlike when the players would kill monsters, it meant that they truly weren’t actually hurting anyone, even if they weren’t aware of it.

 

Then again, if she tried to refine this perspective by turning the situation the other way around… If Frisk always was just a decoy created by the video game as some sort of MacGuffin, it would also explain why their soul could never be taken by anyone. Chances were, this little red heart wasn’t even a real SOUL to begin with.

 

“well… i guess it’s for the best anyway. if we could get to the surface right now, it’d be to wage war against humans. and i think we both know how _that_ would’ve ended.”

 

She bit her lip, looked away and nodded tensely. He sighed again. As much as she could easily convince herself that Frisk’s SOUL probably meant nothing… It didn’t change the impact their arrival in this world had on the _real_ people that already lived inside. How many monsters were there? The game only showed a few dozens of them at best, but a few more were mentioned, and who knows? Maybe there were more, even if the game never gave the players the opportunity to meet them. And they were all…

They were all suffering the same way Sans had.

They couldn’t remember the Resets, but still, the fact of thinking of Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, Asgore, Mettaton… And there were so many others her mind hardly dared mention by name, as she felt that her eyes had started to sting.

 

They all suffered so much from the actions of the game; the realization that thinking about the fate of the ‘main characters’ was just the tip of the iceberg and that now, _every single inhabitant_ of the Underground was actually a single individual with independent memories and feelings of their own…

 

She felt like gulping, or saying something, _anything_ ; but her throat was completely dry.

 

“in any case… i actually had a question for you.” She tilted her head in surprise; he was avoiding her look at first, but after he took a short breath, his two shining pupils dashed in her direction. “it’s just… from the point when the game took over, we hardly had any break at all. time’d usually jump back within the next few minutes if frisk died, or within the next twenty-four hours if they reach the barrier, or… well, sometimes if they get killed repeatedly, they also take longer to come back.”

 

“Might be when the player rage-quits…” she promptly muttered under her breath; seeing her low tone and absorbed look, Sans realized that she probably had not meant to actually say it out loud.

 

“… yeah. maybe. anyway…” He sighed, enlarging the pause to better gain her full attention: “this is _literally_ the first time there hasn’t been a time jump in over a month. i was just curious about it, y’know. so… by any chance, would you know about something that could explain it? did anything happen with that game during the past month?”

 

The human lowered her look and squinted her eyes, taking a few seconds to think back as seriously and thoroughly as she could. After a few seconds, her mouth opened again:

“Hm… I think I _could_ think of something, actually…” He widened his eye-sockets immediately, silently yet eagerly urging her to continue: “I mean, it didn’t happen _exactly_ one month ago, but… Sometime around the beginning of March, there was an update on the game. Version one-point-zero-zero-whatever.”

 

“an _‘update’_?” he repeated incredulously, then asked hurriedly: “what kind of update?”

 

“S-sorry, I really don’t know _that_ much about it… But now that you mention it, I remember that some of the dataminers were disappointed because they hadn’t noticed anything different. At least, well, nothing ‘interesting.’ The other times we had some new lines of dialogue or new plot features, but… Not this time.”

 

But then again… What if there _had_ been something different during that update…? It just had to be something that none of them had noticed before. If a change had been introduced, but that this change involved something that they didn’t even know existed in the first place… There was no questioning why nobody would notice it.

 

“You think it could’ve done something to stop the game from acting here already? Do you think that they found out about you being real and already found a way to solve the problem?” Suddenly, she was beaming and hopeful.

 

… Hmm. That’s an… interesting coincidence.

 

Sans seemed unsure. “i… wouldn’t bet on that. but if that’s the case… t’was about time they did. how long’s been the game out, anyway?”

 

“Well… I heard there was a free demo available all the way back in 2013, but it was far from being a finished game, so, that one probably doesn’t count.”

 

She suddenly froze in place, as she started contemplating that option. The only area that could be explored in the demo was that of the Ruins, but then again… As far as she knew, the demo’s plot, dialogue options and looks, were practically identical to the final product, when it came to the part that was effectively available. So if the game’s world was somehow real from the start…

 

“Wait, no… What if it was already taking effect even back then, too?” Suddenly addressing him, she stared at him with curious yet determined eyes. “Would you remember making a speech with Papyrus where you’d be in a dark place and lying on a deckchair while drinking soda?”

 

Sans gave her a weird look, surprised she would ever _ask_ such random question, and all the more dumbfounded that she would ask it _with a straight face_ , no less.

Just as quickly, her eyes lost that spark of certainty and she looked down in confusion.

 

“… Oh wait, never mind, I think that one came from the Kickstarter instead. So… Y-yeah, let’s just ignore the demo stuff.” She gave her a sheepish grin, but it quickly faded. “The finished game came out on September 2015. Which means that by now, it’s been…” She quickly stared at the ceiling as she made the math. “… a bit more than eight months, I guess.”

 

“eight months…”

 

He repeated those two words in a heavy tone, pondering about their meaning and their deepest implications. When she realized that he was counting it as the amount of time he had been actually stuck in the time loops, her face dropped and she felt as if _something new_ within her chest had just missed a heartbeat. Except that it didn’t quite feel like her biological heart.

In the end, he just sighed again, running a bony hand on his forehead and taking deep breaths.

 

“well… thanks for tellin me, anyway. i don’t exactly know what to do with that info, but… i suppose that’s all we’re gonna get, huh.”

 

Dawn thought back of the implications of the hypothesis she had made. What if the update _truly_ had this purpose? This would mean that someone in Toby Fox’s team, whether Toby Fox himself or someone else, had eventually found out that the world they had created was somehow alive, and…

Well, the good news was, chances were that they did manage to make it so that even if people from her world kept playing _Undertale_ , these players’ games would stop messing with this world. But she also realized that if the game couldn’t Reset anymore… Then, without Sans’s machine or anyone else able to use that power; it meant that everyone was now completely stuck in one of the worst timelines of all, _forever_. Did Toby Fox know which timeline he had trapped everyone in, or…?

 

She realized that when she had brought up this possibility, Sans had felt very uneasy about considering this option. Because if this truly was what had happened, then it could only mean one thing: there was no more purpose for a ‘shield’ against the Resets anymore. But although thinking about this possibility made her feel a little sad for him… She still felt differently about the situation as a whole.

 

There was a chance that bringing her here was completely pointless when it came to her alleged ability to stop the Resets… But it did not mean that she could not help with literally anything else.

 

Whether the game still had an effect on this world or not, a Reset still had to be made at some point in order to save everyone, and that very specific Reset would only be done through one specific way. She had the power to make that very special Reset; but this wasn’t what Sans was looking for, and she respected that decision.

 

So instead, she would help him through any other option she had; she assumed that this would take them a while… But she didn’t mind so much. As long as they were doing this for a purpose, this was what mattered.

 

“anyway.” Sans sighed again after some more silence. “guess that means i should go back to work, now.” He unexpectedly bent his spine backwards and proceeded to pop every single vertebra in his body one after the others while exaggeratedly grunting like an old guy. The human couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed at _how was that even possible_. He looked at her expression, rolled his eyes overdramatically, and snorted. “ _fine_ , you got me, i was messin’ with ya on purpose this time.” That troll.

 

She tried to give him an annoyed glare, but quickly found herself incapable of actually doing it, as she had started giggling uncontrollably at his nonsensical shenanigans.

 

Before she knew it, her burning forehead was buried within her hands as she couldn’t stop her exhausted and idiotic laughter. She was just… done. She was done.

 

Well, this wasn’t _too_ bad a situation. But that was just too much all at once and now she needed one _hell_ of a break.

 

The skeleton observed her for a few seconds, calmly joining her laugh at first, but soon he just shook his head lightly with a goofy smile.

 

When the human finally managed to take a deep breath and stop her hilarity, he was already back to sitting on his desk, but he still gave her a patient look as soon as he heard her silence. Of course he knew what was going on.

 

“that being said… in the meantime, well, you can stay here, but i’d understand if you need some time to, uh. let everything sink in or whatever.” She made a nervous smile and her eyes darted away. He chuckled and pointed his skull towards the other end of the room: “door’s unlocked, by the way.”

 

Dawn hesitated a bit, but she soon came back to look at him in the eye and send him a genuine smile. “I… Thanks. I think I’ll take a little stroll, actually. I think… I need some fresh air after all this.”

 

As fresh as the air could get in the Underground, that was… Then again, they were in Snowdin, so maybe the cold could help her keep a cool head. She walked towards the end of the room and only stopped when her hand went to rest on the knob. Just before leaving, she added:

 

“I won’t be too far, don’t worry.”

The monster didn’t really seem to care about that last part, as he was already too deep into his thoughts and merely sent her an absent-minded wave before he muttered something that sounded like _“ yeah whatev, t’s not like y’could go anywhere.”_, probably without he realized it.

… Right. That too. It was very likely that his house was the only place where she _would_ be welcomed at all, here.

 

She had expected to directly meet up with freezing air, snow and pine trees as soon as she would open the door upstairs, but surprisingly, after climbing the stairs and opening a second one, she instead ended up indoors.

To be more specific, after a few more steps forward, she realized that she was now standing in the middle of the living room of Sans’s and Papyrus’s house. Huh.

 

Under other circumstances, she would have paused to question why there was such an obvious inconsistency with the game… But instead of this, as soon as she devoted more attention to her new surroundings… Once more, something foreign yet familiar in her chest sank.

The couch was missing obviously, since Sans had put it in the basement for some reason; but even if she overlooked this element… She actually had a hard time recognizing the place. It looked so different than the one from the game; not because any notable detail would truly be out of place; but the atmosphere of the ensemble was enough to give her a rush of sadness and guilt.

 

Was this… what the house looked like when there was nobody to take care of it anymore…?

 

Sans had said that the Genocide had occurred about a month earlier. This house… Papyrus had been gone for an entire month. As had everyone else.

Sans had definitely not spared any time for maintaining the life and warmth in this place; not only because of his alleged laziness, but most probably, as she theorized, because he had been way too busy with his work related to otherworldly shenanigans to focus on something as trivial as housework.

 

Without Papyrus… This house truly had lost its life, as well.

This… was just too much to watch. She gulped, then rushed towards the front door and ran outside, the snow cracking under her footsteps. She stopped only a few feet away from the house, standing in place and gawking around her.

 

The town. Snowdin Town. This town was real.

The Underground was real. And it was empty.

 

If she had been keeping any doubts over whether this entire situation was real or not, this was what would have made them vanish for good. On her left side stretched an unending snowed path filled with fog and pine trees, and on her right laid an oh-so-familiar town.

Or at least, the empty and dark buildings of a town.

 

Was the Underground always supposed to be so dark? If they had been on the surface, she would have believed that the sun had set hours earlier and that no stars were visible due to unfavorable weather conditions; but when she looked at what was supposed to be the sky, she only saw pure blackness. Her eyes weren’t nearly sensitive enough to distinguish whether there was anything special on the ceiling or if it was merely composed of stone, but seeing how dark the surroundings were… She really hoped that the monsters didn’t have to deal with this darkness constantly: the only visible light around was coming from the house right behind her. As for the rest… Everything else was dead. This really had become a ghost town.

 

After some time, surprisingly, this view stopped affecting her so deeply. At first, she feared that she was distancing herself from this cruel reality, that maybe as some sort of coping mechanism she had tried to protect herself by not caring about the horrors of this world anymore, and that she was starting to respond to this situation in a fully apathetic manner; but soon, she understood what this rising feeling was.

 

It was probably born out of some frustration or anger in response to the unfairness of this situation, but when the features on her face hardened, only the sudden realization almost managed to break this expression, when the thought made her crack a small and sad ironic smile.

She was filled with determination.

 

She stopped caring about this horrendous situation, because deep inside this familiar yet strange _something_ in her chest, she _knew_. She knew this wasn’t the end.

She believed in Sans’s plan. She would help him all the way. She knew they would succeed.

They would do it, together. They would save everyone.

 

Now that she had been reminded of it… She felt some small guilty curiosity. Well, she wasn’t sure why this curiosity made her feel guilty, because as long as she wouldn’t use it as an excuse to make selfish and dangerous decisions, it was fine; but… She was inside the game, and she was supposed to be the one in charge, right?

 

She really wanted to know what the consequences to this fact were. What were her SOUL’s stats? Would she find some SAVE Points around the Underground? How would ‘SAVING’ work? She had made a point ahead of time that even if given the opportunity to do so, she obviously wouldn’t try to figure out how ‘Resetting’ worked; but ‘SAVING’ wouldn’t hurt anybody, right? If anything, it only ensured that their progress would be, well, ‘Saved’; this was a good thing!

 

She quickly squinted her eyes as she tried to look in the distance towards the other end of the town; there was supposed to be a SAVE Point over there in the game, right between the Snowed Inn and the Shop… but sadly, she couldn’t find anything.

 

The air really was cold; she could see her own breath, and even though this wouldn’t normally deter her since she was used to seeing this in her home town every year during the winter season, this time was different. It was supposed to be the beginning of May in her own world: her current outfit was _definitely not_ fit for an expedition in the coldest area of the Underground, that was for sure.

She would have thought of taking the ‘Undersnow Tunnels’ and exploring more thoroughly the other side of the town in order to check whether the SAVE Point was there or not, but the cold was already starting to get to her, and given how dark the place seemed to be…                                    . She certainly did not want to find herself alone in a ghost town at the darkest hour of the day. Even if the SAVE Points looked like small stars in the game, chances were, they weren’t truly shining any true light, so she wouldn’t be able to see them in such darkness anyway.

And again… what need would they have for a SAVE File, in the end? It wasn’t like they would go back to anything, and if Sans was right about his plan, soon, nobody else would ever be able to.

 

She heard some distant footsteps in her back. They came from inside the house, as she had stupidly left the door open. She turned towards Sans and sent him a shy smile.

 

“hey, uh… ‘dawn’, right?” He stopped patiently right at the entrance of his house, his shadow spreading over the snow below their feet. “just wanted to say, it’s almost time for dinner. you hungry?”

 

Dinner already, huh…? Somehow, it felt like her biological clock claimed that it was too early for that. So she shrugged, then shook her head while pursing her lips in a dorky pout.

 

“… Not really. How about you?”

 

“just a bit.” He shrugged too. Then his eyes darted to the side, reluctantly. “… still have to go, though.”

 

“Where are you going?” she asked immediately, her eyes reflecting some curiosity among her confusion.

 

“hotland. since, uh, y’know, the survivors sheltered in the lab and stuff.” His left hand got out of his hoodie’s pocket and went to scratch the back of his skull awkwardly. “sorry i’m not offering you to come along, but… i guess you understand why i can’t really bring you around.”

 

… Right. Near-Genocide ending.

Her brain quickly formed a mental image of how everyone in the True Laboratory would freak out after Sans would have brought a human through a shortcut only a month after an even younger human had been responsible for killing everyone they knew… Yeah. Bad idea.

“i’ll try to be quick, but just in case something happens… worst case scenario, i should be back in an hour and a half. can you wait till then?” She nodded confidently, and his smile seemed to become a little more genuine as his look somewhat softened. “okay then. see ya. in the meantime just, i dunno, do whatever you want.”

 

“Yeah… To be honest? I thought of something.”

 

Sans raised a nonexistent eyebrow in surprise, silently inciting her to explain:

 

“I know that everything here’s going to be Reset once we’re done fixing your machine and all, so it won’t matter in the end and everything, but…” She took a deep breath. “We’re still going to be stuck here for a _while_ , before you launch the Reset. Right?”

 

“uh…” He turned his skull away, deep in thought yet also a bit embarrassed. “i guess so…? it’ll probably take a few weeks at best, true…”

 

“Right. So… I just thought. We’re going to be living here for a while. And since I’m going to stay here, I’d like to be useful. So, I don’t know if you’ll let me help you fix the machine, but in the meantime…? There’s something else in this house that needs some fixing, too. Or some cleaning or whatever.” She sent him an unsure look. This still wasn’t technically her house, so if only for courtesy, she still had to ask for his approval first: “You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

 

He seemed to give so little care to the matter, the fact that she asked him that question actually surprised him deeply.

 

“well… sure? knock yourself out?” He scratched his skull again, completely confused. “just, uh. please leave the basement out of this.”

 

“Of course. Then again,” she jokingly raised her eyes slyly and theatrically rubbed her chin with a pseudo-pensive look and a smug grin, “I could always try to rearrange your papers in alphabetical order.”

Sans’s expression was now only that of two wide empty eye-holes and a strained horrified smirk. “PLEASE DON’T.”

 

His face was genuinely horrifying, but she could see that it was a threatened expression instead of a threatening one; thus, although she had instinctively looked away, she had immediately burst in loud laughs. “Oh, _come on!_ Anyone could’ve seen from a mile away that I was kidding.”

 

“i know. but even _thinking_ about something so sadistic. this is evil. only an evil mastermind could do something so twisted.”

 

“Yes.” She attempted her best impression of a villainous smirk. “I’m the evilest human you’ll ever see. Your basement will be so perfectly clean and polished, your feeble eyes won’t even be able to look at it. You’ll never be able to approach your machine because its reflection will be so bright, it’ll blind you with its cleanness.”

 

“well, i knew it. no soap, evil human. if you keep going down this dirty path, i’m afraid i’ll have to polish you too.” And there they were, laughing like idiots and taking over the conversation where the other had left it off, only to make it even more nonsensical. When Sans managed to regain control over his hilarity, he perked a quick glance at the watch on his left wrist: “… heh… welp. guess i really should go, or they’re gonna start to worry.”

 

Dawn nodded encouragingly. He sent her a friendly wave in return, to which she responded with a thumbs up.

 

And then he disappeared. She hadn’t seen him moving or anything (no, not even a snap of fingers), but he had merely vanished in an instant, just like that.

 

… Welp. Here was a shortcut, then.

Anyway. She had about an hour and a half before dinner, right? She might as well get started.

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	4. Act 1, Scene 3.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOY did that take a while. Sorry for the long wait, there's been a bunch of things that got rewritten over and over again, and other details that were introduced literally at the last moment. Hopefully the next chapters won't take so long to write.  
> In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this one!

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 3.1

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###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/183426952782/act-i-scene-31)

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* * *

Sans’s shortcut to the Hotland lab facilities was, as usual, executed without a hitch. He perked a few wary glances left and right out of habit before getting out of the shadows, then casually made his way to the front door and inside the main building. A button was pressed, and he patiently waited for the elevator down to the basement.

 

Until the main door opened again and someone leisurely walked in his direction.

 

“Oh. Howdy, Sans! Long time no see.”

 

He froze in place, mentally cursing his luck. This voice…

 

When he had told the human that she would have to wait for an hour and a half at most, it was definitely _not_ because he had actually meant to stay for that long. He had just preferred telling her that she would have to wait rather than having her worry or expect him to come back too soon; nothing more.

 

He had planned to just get in, grab the grub, and then get out before anyone truly had the time to notice he had ever been there. Or, well, he wanted to get to be seen by _just_ enough monsters to let them notice his presence, but not enough to meet someone he actually knew and get stuck in an awkward conversation for who knew how long.

So, _of course_ , of _all_ the monsters he could have been greeted with, it just _had_ to be him.

Sans inhaled swiftly and nervously, then turned around and raised his skull as far up as his spine could allow him. Here stood Asgore.

 

“oh, uh… h-heya. y-your majesty?” He started giving a small wave. Then he stared at his hand, wondering if that was respectful enough or if he was supposed to follow some sort of protocol that he did not know about. “i just, uh… went for the gru… i mean dinner, y’know. heh eh.”

 

The Boss Monster gave a deep, but genuine laugh upon seeing the skeleton’s nervousness.

 

“Of course you did.” he muttered jokingly, bending forward slightly and letting an amused yet desperately morose spark glimmer in his eyes. “You of all monsters deserve a break every now and then.”

 

“heh, yeah, i do kinda enjoy taking it easy and all that, from time to time…” Someone just get him out of this. _Please_.

 

Sweet mercy, the elevator behind him rang and opened its mechanical doors, distracting the taller monster from him, if only for an instant. Asgore was not the kind of person to be bothered by these slip-ups and occasional misbehaviors, but if only because he _was_ a member of the royalty, it was just hard to know how to properly speak to him; especially in the timeline they were currently in.

Asgore gently gestured him to enter first, so he did, and he was followed silently. Sans pressed the button to lead them in the basement, then buried his hands in his pockets.

 

This… was fine.

 

He was just stuck in a small elevator making some small talk with the king of the Underground and all the monsters who survived after the murderous rampage of what had appeared to be a human terrorizing an entire race, also known as the king who still had six human souls at his disposal, who had sworn to protect all his remaining subjects and was now fully resolved to absorb said six souls if any true danger were to come again, _for example_ , a ninth human who would just happen to somehow magically appear out of nowhere and be in hiding in his house all the way back in Snowdin Town.

 

No big deal.

 

“What were you doing outside of the shelter?” Sans stiffened with just enough discretion so as to not let the other monster notice. There had been no suspicion in his voice; rather, just a hint of concern, and maybe of confusion. But still, he just couldn’t help but feel on edge. “I still wonder why you preferred staying isolated like this while working on your project. It would have been safer for you to stay in the laboratory. Besides, you would have had access to all the materials and resources the other scientists have at their disposal...”

 

Even though Sans knew a little bit more about Asgore’s personal life than he should thanks to his adventures throughout time and memories of past alternate events, they had never been particularly close — especially since, well, it was hard to get close to a member of the royalty during his reign, even if _this_ particular member was known for doing his best to stay as close as possible to his subjects.

 

Still. _This_ Asgore… This was a version he had never truly been given the chance of getting to know at any other point during the past timelines, and this was a version he… really would have preferred not getting to know at all.

 

“well, y-yeah, but… the machine’s been standing all the way back there for ages, so i just didn’t really feel like movin’ it around… you could say it’s kinda a… family heirloom. y’know. has some sentimental value an’ all that.”

 

This was an Asgore who loved his subjects more than anything else in the entire world, because they were literally the only thing left that he cared about. And after he felt like he had already failed them when Alphys had been unable to contact him in time about the “murderous human child” issue… This was an Asgore who had put his grief past him for real.

 

This was an Asgore who, after witnessing so much pain and horror coming from one single human _child_ , had ultimately lost all lingering faith he had in humanity. _If a child could be such a demon, what could the adults possibly be like?_

 

“I... see. Yes. Of course it would.” Asgore glanced to the side, an obvious flow of melancholy and nostalgia stirring within. “Why did the humans that came down here always have to take so much from all of us...? I simply cannot understand.”

 

This was an Asgore who had lost hope, but who had gained the will to… get revenge, maybe? Not even that was certain. The plan was basically the same as before; except that contrary to the previous times when he had to deal with Frisk, this specific time, he really was willing to go through with it. Because if he didn’t, he would go through the risk of losing all he had left.

 

“oh, humans had nothing to do with his… uh, i mean, i-it’s got nothin’ to do with all that. it’s just that it’s, well, _was_ , his greatest invention and all, so…”

 

He laughed nervously for a bit. Then he stopped.

Better to change the subject.

 

“what about you? you were…”

 

He had lost everything for the third time in his life. Each of the previous occurrences had left their own aching mark; but this last one… It had not even been done by an actual human at this point, technically speaking; but only Sans truly knew better. The others didn’t know that.

 

“I was looking after the souls, yes.” the King nodded slowly, yet sternly. “We cannot afford to leave them without supervision for too long. And even though we do have some volunteers to look after them at all times, I simply could not help but verify myself, after the blackout occurred.”

 

The elevator stopped. There was a _ding_. The doors opened.

 

Asgore exited first. Sans released a small sigh when he thought the other monster could not hear him, then he followed.

 

Had he been given even the illusion of a choice, he would have obviously chosen a more welcoming timeline before inviting his special guest around. But sadly, he was not exactly ready to pass up the opportunity he had been given, knowing full well how unlikely it would have been for him to be given a second chance. If he had been brought back to this point in time when he had first discovered everything, he knew he would have done it again.

 

Then again, now that he thought about it, _maybe_ he should have warned the human about the real danger of her exposure and made sure she would stay put.

His entire body was stilled as he stared in the distance, pondering his options for the duration of exactly two seconds and a half. Then he shrugged. Internally.

 

 _… meh. she’ll be fine._

 

He’d probably just forget when he got back home, anyway. Or be too lazy to think about it. But that wouldn’t be a problem. She already knew the context and she knew so much already about pretty much everything there was to know in the first place: she should be clever enough to figure it out on her own and avoid getting herself in trouble.

 

As long as they were the only ones ever wandering around Snowdin or outside the laboratory, it would be unlikely for her to be discovered by someone else. They just needed to avoid the cameras, but then again, what use would they have for going so far into the wilderness?

 

“Oh, right! I almost forgot.” Asgore’s giant head tilted upwards in sudden realization, and the sound of his exclamation vigorously pulled the skeleton away from his thoughts. “You came just in time, actually. I was told that Alphys wanted to see you.”

 

Sans blinked in confusion. “did she, now…?”

 

“She did. Actually, I believe it was related to the power outage from earlier.” A gleam of genuine and somewhat childish joy sparked in the taller monster’s eyes before he continued, as if he had just made a hopeful deduction: “Does it mean that your project has advanced enough so you could start a few tests of some sort?”

 

Ugh. Touché. Not _exactly_ what he had in mind, but… This hit way too close to the truth for his liking. And now he had better finish his time machine as fast as possible because if he took too long, _the King of the Underground_ of all people could start to become suspicious. Just great.

 

“well i’m not done yet, but… you could say that the first half of what had to be done, is done. and…”

 

The skeleton paused, seemingly considering whether what he had in mind really was worth saying… But after thinking a little more about it, he decided that he could give himself that little bit of credit. He _did_ just manage to make interdimensional travel real. That did probably deserve at least a little bit of praise.

 

Slightly despite him, but also because he gladly allowed it, his skull ended up smiling with a slight yet almost smug spark of pride.

 

“… well, yeah. guess i did make some real progress. for science.”

 

“I am very glad to hear this.” Asgore answered, a satisfied and happy smile spreading on his face. “Well… I will not keep you busy for any longer. I am certain that Alphys is looking for you right now. You should not be making her wait.”

 

The King promptly left him behind, advancing towards the first door on their left. Sans spent some time to recollect his thoughts and take a deep breath.

So. Alphys wanted to see him, because of the power outage that he had caused during his interdimensional experimental shenanigans. There were _so_ many possible ways it could go. _Obviously_ , he had _no_ idea what she was about to tell him, it wasn’t like he could _predict_ from a mile away how she would react after living through so many outcomes and having known the multiple aspects of her personality for who knew how long.

He rubbed the bridge of his nonexistent nose between two bony fingers, grumbling under his breath in apprehension.

 

Better to just get this over with. Chances were, if he didn’t come to her, she would find a way to make it to Snowdin all by herself, and if that happened, she would _not_ be happy.

Still. Grub first.

 

As soon as he opened the door leading to the main lobby, which had been reorganized to serve its new purpose as a dining room and cafeteria of sorts, the noise and large crowd overwhelmed him.

 

Compared to how many monsters lived in the Underground overall, there were never that many of them left after a run where the kid had been so murderous; but even then, the Hotland Laboratories’ basement was definitely not spacious enough to actually host all of them for so long.

 

Nonetheless, while the majority of the survivors were gradually relocated in New Home just a few days after the kid was neutralized, they were still always meeting in the Laboratory whenever they needed something. Supplies. Clothes. Food. Announcements from the King.

 

The laboratory had become the most important hub for pretty much everything. It was the safest place in the whole Underground, the Capitol being a close second thanks to its improved security infrastructures, which had been built in a rush after Frisk’s journey, but were largely strong enough to stand as impressive fortifications for the city. Still, even though they were not technically living there, the laboratory felt safer for a majority of monsters, and since it had turned into the largest public storeroom in the Underground, this was bound to gather the most people given how scared they had been of venturing outside or losing any more than they already had. It took more than two weeks before the first team of the most combat-experienced monsters came out and explored what had become of the Underground, carefully monitored by the security cameras.

 

Sans quietly joined the line for the food rations, carefully crafting his strategy.

He despised the mere idea of actually going through with what he was about to do, but then again, as long as he didn’t get caught doing it and as long as he had planned to change this timeline for the better anyway, in the grand scheme of things, it wouldn’t really matter.

Besides, it was not like he truly had a choice; even under the most regular circumstances, asking for two rations would have raised quite a handful of eyebrows. The idea of being completely straightforward and casually asking for a second ration because he needed to feed a human in hiding made him laugh internally, but for the sake of the safety of said human and of the entirety of his plan, he just couldn’t be that blunt.

 

Among the monsters responsible for preparing enough food for everyone, as usual he recognized the bunny shopkeepers from Snowdin Town, that ‘Burgerpants’ guy (he’ll get his real name eventually), and some others he didn’t personally know, but whose faces he had seen a few times before every now and then. He carefully observed the group, the line of the other monsters around him who were, just like him, waiting for their own dinner, and the displays of packed food rations that were stocked all the way in the back of the room, vastly out of reach from everyone in the line and the least supervised of all due to their alleged inaccessibility.

 

As soon as he saw an open window in time and space where he could exploit a blind spot, he discreetly stretched an arm in what would be commonly considered a vastly unconventional direction, and as swiftly as he could without making any noise, let alone letting anyone suspect that anything was happening, he grabbed a sandwich that was waiting a few dozen feet away from his current position, then retracted his arm the other way through the shortcut and carefully hid his prize in one of his hoodie’s inner pockets. He threw a few worried glances around him out of paranoia, but nobody seemed to have noticed. Good. Now all he had to do was wait for his turn and ask for his own ration, and everything would be fine.

 

Once finally he was out of the line with one ration in his hand and the other still carefully hidden in his closed jacket, he glanced at his watch and noticed that he had already spent forty whole minutes in that mess. Ugh. Couldn’t he just find a shadowed corner and warp his way back to Snowdin while no one was looking? He’d just pretend he couldn’t find Alphys. He had spent much longer than he had wanted to already, so…

 

“A- _hem_.”

 

Oh God damn it.

Well, at least now he did not need to worry anymore about whether or not he should bother to actually look for the lizard scientist, since she had very obviously found him first. Still, was the entire universe playing a trick on him today? It looked like awfully unlikely coincidences had kept piling up all day long, and that was starting to really rub him the wrong way.

 

“You weren’t actually going to leave without even saying hi again, especially not after what coincidentally happened to the CORE after it received some unusual energy spike coming from its Snowdin distribution plant, were you?”

 

… Welp. No more escaping it, now. After conjuring almost all of his remaining energy into stopping himself from face-palming or sighing too loudly due to his weariness and frustration, the skeleton turned around and prepared a casual, yet too little too obviously fake smile.

 

“… hey, al. how’s it going?”

 

He knew in all honesty that just pretending that he didn’t know what was wrong and that everything would turn out fine was stupid and counterproductive, but then again, he simply had no idea how else to handle the situation, and he was too exhausted to care. He really just wanted to get this over with and find his way out of here as soon as he could seize his chance.

 

“I don’t know, Sans.” She rolled her eyes and shrugged in a mixture between amusement and annoyance, as she very obviously mimicked his own teasing attitude. “What do you call a guy who leaves the CORE barely standing after he ran some tests with his creepy quantum physics time-space altering biz, and who doesn’t even show up afterwards to help or apologize, leaving me all alone to fix his mess?”

 

… Yeeeeeah, she was pissed. Rebooting the entire facility and recalibrating each of its features individually, all of this pretty much all on her own, _had_ to have been a huge pain.

 

“uh…” Was she expecting him to actually answer, or…? Eventually, he just displayed a guilty apologetic grin and muttered the most obvious answer he could think of: “… a numbskull?”

 

“A quarky boronic bosonhead who bariumly gives a spin about others’ sulfuring and could’ve at lithium sent me a sine before starting his tests instead of having it all lepton me to fix all he hadron,” she paused just for long enough to breathe, “AND deal with the scared and angry monsters who had no idea what that was all about and never asked for any of this to happen in the first place.”

 

… Sans was, to put it bluntly, genuinely floored. He _might_ have stared at her with wide eye-sockets for a good dozen seconds of stunned silence. Did he just get owned?

 

Not waiting for his answer, she gave him a silent sign by pointing the dinner tables all the way back in the main lobby, and he followed without giving it much thought when he realized that he would much rather continue this discussion while sitting. He would have preferred talking in a more private and quiet setting, but apparently he didn’t have a say in that one.

 

“… ok, _wow_. good job on that one. it was actually impressive coming from you.” And he completely meant it, at that.

 

“Thanks! It took me a whole hour to come up with it.”

 

They reached one of the few free tables and took their seat. She actually looked sincerely grateful for that compliment, which astounded him and left him for a few seconds curious as to whether she wanted to scold him or just joke with him. Almost _hopeful_ , even.

When her sarcastic tone came back though, sadly the former option became the obvious one:

 

“Then again, you gave me all the time to think on it, when I was stuck in front of the main generator and could do nothing but wait for it to cool down to a level that WOULDN’T risk making the entire Hotlands explode along with it if I gave it even one more task.”

 

He tried to turn a few sentences in his head in order to find a correct but not- _too_ -obviously standard apology, but he seemed to fail miserably. Then again, maybe he was just too lazy or too tired, and maybe he did not actually care that much about apologizing in the first place.

 

Well, he had never caused that much damage to the CORE before, had he? This scene was supposed to be entirely new. But then again… Alphys’s scolding tended to always follow the same pattern. Even if she hadn’t even started yet, part of him already knew how it would go if he didn’t do anything to intentionally twist things to force them to follow a different path, and this part of him made him feel… strangely numb.

 

Sans tried to remember some old memories from the years when they still had some good times together. Since when had she become so predictable and dull…?

Seeing his prolonged silence, Alphys eventually just removed her glasses with one clawed hand and tiredly rubbed her face with the other.

 

“At least, PLEASE just tell me it worked.” she murmured weakly. “It looks like it did, but still…” Her look swiftly hardened. “Just so you know, I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t see you snatch that sandwich with that weird trick of yours.”

 

His bones rattled. Did she seriously consider telling on him…? “look, al, i really…”

 

She sighed again, her eyes dashing to the floor on her side as she appeared more conflicted; she seemed reluctant, but also relieved all at the same time, somehow? “… I know. A ’s gonna need it, right?”

 

Very subtle, Alphys.

 

Sans threw multiple terrified glances around them, but when he was convinced that no monster around them seemed to have heard her (she _had_ thought of lowering her tone, at least), he took a second to sigh in relief before he sent her a death glare.

 

“ok, what was _that_ one for? you _really_ want us to get caught or what?” It took him some extra energy to stay intimidating while whispering these questions so that nobody else could accidentally eavesdrop.

 

The conflicted frown on her muzzle shook and distorted itself in a funny way. She tried to readjust her glasses back in place, but they shook a little before they regained their balance. “I… I don’t know. I’m sorry, I just… D-do we r-really need to keep that a s-secret from EVERYONE?”

 

His shoulders rattled slightly as he tensed even more. If her stuttering was back, then it could only mean that she cared deeply about that issue.

It was surprising at first to hear this confession coming from the very monster who had been keeping somewhat similar secrets for _years_. Almost… funnily ironic. Part of him almost wanted to make a joke from it, but he stopped himself from doing so at the last moment.

 

Maybe he shouldn’t point it out.

Maybe she, too, was tired of keeping secrets, after all.

He could understand that feeling.

 

“depends. you think you could tell them what _really_ happened last month? that whatever happened, it doesn’t even matter _at all_?”

 

The answer was obvious. Yet, she found herself unable to say it. What was preventing them from telling everyone that instead of an actual human, the _thing_ that had caused them so much pain and disaster was nothing more than a remote-controlled puppet? That the motive behind their misery was not even cruelty or madness, but just— the lack of knowledge from someone who thought they were playing a video game, and who genuinely believed that the lives they had stolen were not real?

 

What was stopping them from telling everyone that, chances were, the ones who had caused so much death and destruction were not so different from any of them? That just because they didn’t know any better… Had any monster been in their place, without knowing anything; would they have done the same thing without even realizing it?

 

Alphys thought of some of the most popular video games in the Underground. Not all of them were necessarily violent, but the monsters weren’t unfamiliar with this type of games either; she had even been asked to help create one of those Massively Multiplayer Online games, and although she wasn’t typically one to enjoy video games that much (she vastly preferred mangas and anime), she could understand the hype they created.

She thought back of how Undyne had sometimes spent some time on some of these video games, not only because she was using the excuse that she could use them as a means to create battle strategies, but also because she _genuinely_ enjoyed them.

So now… How would she have reacted if, one day, she suddenly learned that one of these games actually impacted sentient people?

 

What _was_ preventing them from telling everyone that they had been living the scenario of a video game? This sounded so easy to say. And all at the same time, this was such a painful revelation to receive. This was unbelievable not because it would seem scientifically absurd— way on the contrary, the theory that could explain how a video game could be controlling their world was so easy to understand. But this was unbelievable because nobody could easily accept that this could ever be the truth.

 

Such fact could be received with so many reactions, from anger to hopelessness. _Especially_ after what had happened during the last month… Learning such truth could destroy so much. She knew it had had this effect on her.

 

Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton, everyone…

They had all fought to their deaths. But all their inspiring, yet tragic heroism, had been for _nothing_.

Because there never was an ‘enemy’ in the first place.

Because this game could have restarted and erased all of their pain and memories at any point.

Because Sans’s plan involved doing exactly that.

Erasing everything, one last time.

 

 _“It doesn’t even matter at all.”_ What a terrible thing to say. What a horrible truth to keep.

 

She looked down. Sans was about to add something along the lines of _“ yeah, thought so.”_, but he eventually decided against it.

 

“even you can’t accept it. not after what happened.” he muttered with a seemingly detached tone, but a compassionate look. “can you…?”

 

“I… I-I want to trust you. A-and I saw e-evidence that… t-they really d-don’t…” She cut herself short, trying to regain her composure. When she raised her eyes again to face him, they appeared so empty, yet paradoxically filled with a spark of undecipherable nature. “T-they r-really n-never want-ted this t-to h-happen. D-did they…?”

 

She looked about to cry. His shining pupils dimmed ever so slightly as they ran away from this disheartening view.

 

“don’t think dawn can speak for all of them, but… at least she understood the situation fast enough. judging by her expression, she’s…” He hesitated, trying to find the right words. How _could_ he describe her? He hadn’t really known her for nearly long enough to judge her properly. “… well. she’s a person. that’s all there is to say. she’s a person with feelings, and a minimum of common sense. so she gets to understand how _we_ feel, too.”

 

“Dawn… T-that’s her name, huh.” she caught on, repressing a stiff giggle. “How did she take the whole thing?”

 

“she, uh. well, it took her a while to just… believe it was happenin for real.” When he thought back of the first conversation he had with her, he chuckled for a bit. “you should’ve seen it. pretty funny in retrospect.”

 

Alphys’s muzzle shook a bit as she tried to laugh along, but the sad expression won over immediately. After a few seconds, the desperate look was replaced with a harsh frown.

 

“I just really hope you’ll keep that one under your watch.” she muttered edgily. “The other one caused enough pain as it was.”

 

The death glare she received from Sans made her shiver uncontrollably.

 

“Frisk would never have done any of this.”

 

The lizard gave him a dirty look. Even though she had been told that they weren’t actually responsible for what had happened, and that they weren’t even the one responsible for trapping their world in endless time loops… Part of her was still surprised that Sans would even keep calling that human by name despite everything that had happened because of them.

 

Maybe Sans had been able to forgive all of these humans, whether they came from their world or whether they were one of those ‘players’, but she knew for a fact that it couldn’t have been such an easy task for anyone else.

 _She_ knew the truth, and she was still struggling to forgive any of them. She _wanted_ to, but the scars were still too fresh, and… She just didn’t feel ready to disregard her dearest friends’ deaths just yet. They had done so much… all in vain? How _could_ she accept that? How could _anyone_ accept that?

Part of her reasoned that the only reason Sans had been able to forgive everyone so easily was because he had been through so many timelines himself… Maybe he had simply stopped caring altogether. It is so much easier to forgive if you weren’t hurt in the first place.

 

Ever since she learned that he had been able to keep track of the time jumps sometime during the last month, Sans had always refused to tell her how many timelines he had been through, or what he had seen during those erased times. The only thing she knew was that at some point, they had made it all to the Surface, and that Sans’s plan involved replaying that timeline once more, at the very end.

 

 _Replaying it_. As if it were just an act. A play he had learned to rehearse over and over, to the point where he had learned his part by heart and could do it in front of an audience without ever stuttering or having to actively work on his memory to remember his lines.

Or, under a different angle, maybe he simply saw it as an experiment whose results had become entirely predictable. Take those reactants, choose carefully the conditions of the reaction’s environment, and you will always obtain the same products with a complete certainty. After the stage of experiments, science always tries to make predictions, after all.

 

He had seen them all, repeating every day the same lines like a bunch of broken records, merely because they could not remember the other timelines like he did. He must be so tired of hearing the same ‘dialogue’ all over again… Maybe this very conversation they were having right now… How many times had he lived through it already?

 

He had seen them all die, only to come back to life a few hours later, over and over… Did he still feel anything when he saw one of them fall to that human? Did he still feel _anything at all_ towards them, at this point…?

They were his family and friends, and she could tell that he still _wanted_ to feel that way towards them, no matter what. But still, in the end of the day… Did he still care about them?

 

He had to care enough, or at least persuade himself that he cared, because of how hard he had worked on this project of his in order to save everyone. But then again… His plan involved restarting everything. His plan involved erasing this iteration. Erasing _them_. Erasing her.

Did he realize any of this? Probably not. Sometimes she felt selfish for thinking that he was the selfish one. He wanted to save them, after all. She was the one who thought that instead of saving _them_ , he wanted to save a different iteration of them all.

 

Still, the facts were what they were. Sans probably saw things under a different perspective, but this was what it was: a _perspective_. Sans wanted to save all monsterkind; but in doing so, he was neglecting the ones who were still suffering around him, right at this very moment.

His plan involved denying that any of their pain had ever existed in the first place. It involved denying that Undyne had literally cheated death just to give everyone a chance to evacuate. It involved denying that Mettaton had willingly sacrificed himself for the sake of saving even more time. It involved denying that Papyrus had been willing to keep his purest views and put them to the ultimate test. It involved denying her own personal growth during this last month.

 

She did not want to go back to being the useless insecure nerd she used to be. She wanted to keep that confidence she had worked so hard to regain during this past month. She wanted to keep helping everyone, like she had always been expected to.

Of course she wanted to save everyone and see them all happy on the Surface. But… she wanted to be the one to live through it. Was that selfish? Was that being scared of death? Not death, technically. The time jump would not ‘kill’ her. It would just erase her memories and send her back to how she was one month earlier.

But… she really didn’t like who she was one month earlier. She had changed so much… She had started to wonder if the Alphys from last month was the same Alphys as she was now.

 

This was when she had realized…

Even though Sans genuinely cared about everyone, he did not care about them. Even though Sans cared about her, he really didn’t care about _her, now_.

 

When she raised a tired look towards him, she had so many questions to ask, so many things to say… But she could not find the words.

Instead, she finally noticed that at some point during her zoning out, Sans had pulled his phone out of his pocket and started checking it. When she gave him a questioning look, he merely said that he had received a text:

[ FROM: Grillby — 08:47 PM ]  
Hey Sans. First time seeing you here since the beginning of the month. We haven’t met in a while, have we? We should hang out sometime. The bar isn’t available for now, but working in your basement all day must be lonely.  
You look like you’re busy with the Royal Scientist so I won’t bother. Give me a sign whenever you want to chat.

 

The skeleton looked up in the crowd, and soon found the fire elemental with his head risen and locked on him. They shared a look. The former barman rose a fiery hand and made a silent wave from afar. Sans returned it with a light chuckle.

 

“heh. it’s true we haven’t talked in forever. i actually miss them…”

 

Alphys observed him discreetly, trying not to let him notice that she was watching. While Sans was usually hard to read, and while she was not usually that good at studying people’s expressions, her curiosity was just that strong, and he tended to drop his mask much more easily when he was distracted by something and forgot everything that stood around him.

A wave of sadness rushed over his skull as he stared back at his cell phone. No, not exactly sadness… Was it nostalgia? It appeared that the one who had sent him this message was someone he was attached to, at least to some extent… but according to his words, it was someone he had not had the chance to talk to in so long. He _missed_ talking with them.

He looked obviously conflicted, as if wondering whether he should answer or not. Did he want to interact with _this_ iteration of his friend, or did he want to wait for the next one so he could have this chat without it getting erased afterwards…?

 

After a few dozen seconds, the monster’s left bony thumb started typing. Apparently he had made his mind.

 

[ FROM: Sans — 08:49 PM ]  
sure, it’d be nice to make up for lost time.  
i’ll prolly see you some other day. maybe lunch.

 

When he closed his cell phone and shove it back in one of his shorts’ pockets, Alphys judged it was the best moment to carry on with the conversation. But all at the same time… She was not sure she actually wanted to discuss about their former topic so much. There were different matters that were just as important, that she believed they should tackle as soon as possible.

 

“So… What are your plans from now on?” she asked with a casual tone, but a stern intent and an anxious look. “You can’t exactly work on your machine AND make sure she won’t get in trouble at the same time, can you?”

 

“heh. to be honest, i stopped counting the times she said she wanted to help, actually. not sure yet if i’ll take her on that offer, but… she just _might_ be useful. ‘sides, it’d be a nice way to keep an eye on her and work faster all at the same time.”

She hummed, deep in thought yet paying much attention to his words and expressions. She looked skeptical and worried. If anything, the idea of a human offering to help fix an intricate and potentially dangerous machine made her feel extremely suspicious; yet the fact that Sans seemed to brush this suspicion off as if it should be entirely irrelevant made her at least _try_ to reconsider.

He was usually so much more cautious than _she_ was… or at least he was handling his secrets much better than she did. That, or maybe he had just stopped caring altogether due to all these time loops… Until he didn’t anymore.

Was that making sense?

 

Sans’s behavior during this last month had been… puzzling, to say the least. For years they had grown used to seeing him nihilistic and careless, supposedly because of how any time jump that could occur would erase everything they would do and none of them would even remember what had happened.

Ironically… this used to be his behavior, until he had actually started _remembering_ the time jumps; from that point onwards, well, admittedly she had only been able to see the last iteration of it, but the change in him between the beginning of this loop and how he was behaving just ‘the day before’ was baffling.

From lazy and depressed, literally from one day to the other, he had become so desperate… This desperation had led him to get on the move as soon as he had found the dimmest glimmer of hope.

 

He had stopped caring… up to the point when the events made him care again.

 

This was so… strange. And yet, this was the only way she could explain it. Then again, what could she hope to understand of him, from that pitifully shallow view she had of the events? Who knew how many timelines had been squished between the first day of this loop and ‘the day before’? Who knew, maybe he had been trapped in time loops for years, and this sudden change in behavior had not been nearly so sudden at all.

Speaking of time loops…

“I’m still wondering… What made you think that these… ‘players’ would necessarily have the ability to time jump?”

 

Sans’s skull tilted in surprise, as if he had not expected that she would ask. Had he forgotten to tell her? Maybe he had.

 

“well, that one’s easy.” he chuckled absent-mindedly, looking in the distance and displaying a small smile. “she comes from a world where there’s hardly any magic at all. so, in order for their souls to be stable enough to sustain themselves… they naturally need more determination to just, well, survive.” He shrugged. “i made some measurements and all, and theoretically their souls should be around four times stronger than a human soul from here. should be more than enough to do the trick.”

 

Alphys’s soul sank. The human Sans had brought was _four times stronger than a regular one_. Was he _nuts_ …?!

But… the deed was done. There was no more going back now, no matter how much she thought this should be the wiser solution for now.

 

“I… T-that would explain it.” she sighed, sneaking her clawed fingers underneath her glasses and rubbing her closed eyes in tired circled motions. “B-but Sans, do you just realize w-what bringing one here would…” She readjusted her glasses and sent him a scolding, yet terrified look. “S-she’s just a d-doomsday-enhancing ha-hazard, now!”

 

It didn’t help that he had slowly raised a pair of fully darkened pupils to face her. The _plainly aware_ look he was giving her was all the more reassuring.

 

“i _know_. that’s why i really need you to hush it. no one can know, and especially not asgore. i mean, if he got her and absorbed her soul along with the other six…” His eye-sockets twitched in an eerie way, as if he were about to make a joke. “need a little help here. what’s above godliness?”

Oh, you wouldn’t know.

 

The silence that engulfed them was only covered by the sounds of all the other monsters surrounding them, oblivious as ever. Alphys suddenly started to feel them as potential menaces, worried that any of them could have heard even one word of their talk…

Maybe Sans was right. She definitely should have tried to find a different setting, if they were to discuss something so dangerous.

 

That is, if there _were_ anything else to discuss; judging from how Sans stood up from his seat and addressed her a short glance before leaving, it seemed obvious that to him, the conversation was over. He was getting near a much less crowded, much darker place; the perfect setting if he wanted to take a shortcut and disappear without anyone noticing. Did he really intend to leave her like this, right after saying something like _that_?!

 

“S-Sans, wait!” she stumbled away from her seat and half walked, half trotted after him. Fortunately, when he heard her, he stopped and turned around, although he looked annoyed. When she stopped to quickly catch her breath, she found that for a few seconds she had forgotten her words… So instead of what she had probably meant to say at first, she blabbered: “Can I come with you?”

 

There was a pause. Then, Sans’s sockets squinted humorously, as if he weren’t sure he had heard her right. “… _what_?”

 

She hesitated, having just realized what she had said. “I-I mean… You look like you haven’t had some proper rest in a while. You barely had any time to come here before today! So now that you can take some time for yourself, y-you’ll need someone else to look after her, so y-you can at least relax a bit…”

 

That much was true, at least. During the entire month, Sans had been so reclusive and absorbed in his thoughts; it was obvious that he was completely absorbed in his project, to such extent that _Sans_ , of all people, had started to neglect his sleep. Well, it was not _certain_ that he had neglected his sleep, but now that she could see him for the first time in so long, it was at least obvious that he looked a lot more tired than usual. And after that achievement from earlier… No matter whether he was tired or not, he definitely deserved his rest, if only for one evening.

After a few seconds of silence, the skeleton seemed to have thought through a similar argument, because he ended up smiling and shrugged jokingly.

 

“you know what? you’re right. i kinda miss my bed. haven’t seen it during the last _fourteen hours_ , you realize that?”

 

She rolled her eyes teasingly. “Exactly what I’m saying. If you keep going like that, you just MIGHT cure that laziness of yours. Next step, you’re gonna make it snow in Hotland.”

 

For the first time, they laughed together, from a genuine laugh. It did not last for long, but the feeling remained. When Sans stretched an open hand, Alphys gladly seized it, and they both disappeared, only to reappear in a lit living room at the outskirts of Snowdin Town.

 

“So… Where is she now?” Alphys asked, turning her head around and looking for any trace of what could be a living being in the house… And then, the realization hit her. “W-wait, y-you ACTUALLY left a human without supervision, i-in your house, for…”

 

He leisurely glanced at the watch on his left wrist. “… one hour twenty minutes. could be worse.” Sans looked amused by the scientist’s terrified attitude. “what, you were worried she’d burn the house down while i was gone?” He fell silent for a few short seconds when he took some time to look around. “… looks pretty clean, actually. huh. definitely not as good as papyrus, but, not bad.”

The door behind them opened swiftly, as a humming brunette obliviously walked in, closed the door behind her path, turned back towards the direction she intended to follow— and stopped in shock as she met face to face with not one, but _two_ monsters, who each turned around to face her with a pair of surprised expressions.

 

When her stare crossed the human’s, Alphys’s eyes tripled in size. The human blinked while staring at her, sent a quick interrogative look at Sans, then went back to stare at the lizard again. She tried to show a patient smile and greet her happily, but the monster stiffened and very obviously tried to refrain from stepping back. Upon seeing her unease, Dawn carefully stepped back to leave her some space. The scientist seemed to appreciate the gesture, as she trembled at first, but eventually cracked a small and shy smile.

 

“… H-h-hiya. S-so you’re… t-the human, right?” Well, _duh_.

 

The poor Alphys seemed to be completely petrified by her view. When she tried to imagine what she must have gone through during this timeline, the human easily understood where _that_ came from. Why did Sans bring her here in the first place…? Dawn sent another glance at the skeleton, silently asking for his permission before she would make any move or raise her voice at all. She was met with an absolute indifference; it wasn’t really that he seemed to not give a care in the world, but rather that he was enjoying the view way too much to help her in any way. Jerk.

 

“It… depends on w-which one you’re talking about.” she eventually answered, whispering in a carefully soft tone, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “D-do you know everything about…?” Wait, stupid question. What if Sans had wanted to keep that a secret? Great way to bust it, really, _congratulations_.

 

“… Y-yeah.” the lizard muttered, avoiding her look but actively keeping an eye out for any subtle movement. “I-I know ab-bout the video game.”

 

Oh. This explained that. “I… see.”

If awkwardness could be tangible, one would have needed a full arsenal of blades in order to cut through this jungle of uneasy embarrassment.

 

“she insisted on coming.” Sans shrugged, pointing the lizard with a lazy thumb. Then, he casually walked towards the stairs, sending them a lazy wave with his left hand without looking at them. “you two have fun. i’ll go catch some z’s.”

 

“Uh— S-Sans, wait…!” Alphys cowered a bit in response to the human’s sudden outburst, but she was ignored for the time being. When Sans sent Dawn a silent nod, asking her to tell him what she had in mind, she quickly obliged: “I was just thinking, for tomorrow. What time did you plan to get up? It’s just that… I can put an alarm on my phone so I can be ready whenever you want.”

 

The skeleton blinked in utter bafflement. She sure was taking the initiative in a lot of things.

 

“uh… i didn’t have any plans, but… how ‘bout eight thirty? ‘s that good?”

 

“Sure!” she smiled, already typing on her odd white rectangle again. “It’s okay if you change your mind, I just wanted to get an idea.”

 

Alphys gave her a suspicious look, although she tried to hide her wariness.

 

“So y-you’re really going to assist him?”

 

She gave her a sheepish grin. “Technically, he still didn’t say anything. But it’s really up to him. I’d love to help, but I totally understand if you don’t trust me.”

 

They looked up at Sans, who just shrugged with that _“ i seriously couldn’t care less”_ attitude. Then he merely said that he’d decide on the next day, and resumed his walk up the stairs.

 

“A-actually, Sans! I-I’ll help you too. W-with the machine. Tomorrow.” Alphys stuttered. “The CORE’s been fixed, so, t-the other engineers s-should be fine without me. I’ll just send them a message tomorrow morning. A-Asgore will probably be happy if I say I’ll be working with you.”

 

There was a long silence. The human looked at her with surprise, but she also appeared somewhat reassured. Surely she knew enough to realize that an actual scientist was a lot more competent to assist him; that, or she just thought that three pairs of hands would be more efficient than only one or two. But then again, the final decision only fell on Sans, also known as the most indecisive guy who would be ready to refrain from giving his decision if it could cause some mild yet hilarious annoyance, as long as it could not be responsible for any _actually_ unfortunate consequences. That troll.

In the end… He just shrugged. Again.

 

“sure. g’night.”

 

He really was doing that on purpose. This last time the girls were to ask him something, when Alphys stopped him as he was on the verge of opening the door leading to his bedroom, part of her only did it to annoy him in return.

 

“H-hey, Sans. I know you want to have some peace now, but just before you do that, d-didn’t you forget something?” Sans grudgingly sighed before turning a pair of silent but glaring eye-sockets towards her. “I thought you’d taken a second ration for her.”

 

He shook his skull as if what he had just heard was nothing but a nonsensical and utterly stupid waste of time.

He merely said:

 

“in the kitchen.”

 

And then he disappeared through his room’s door.

Curious, Alphys, who was the one closer to the room in question, opened the door leading to it and stared: right in front of her gaze, a packed sandwich was patiently waiting, obviously displayed in the middle of the table.

She face-palmed, sighing.

 

“… I hate it when he does that.”

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	5. Act 1, Scene 3.2

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 3.2

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* * *

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* * *

“So… What were y-you doing outside?”

 

It had only taken a split second after the human’s appearance to notice that the hoodie she was wearing was not originally hers; and right after Sans had left, it seemed that the human in question had finally been reminded of that fact, as Alphys watched her remove it and slightly blush in embarrassment.

 

She sort of acted like a scared child or animal after being caught doing something they knew they should have refrained from doing, as if she were surprised, but not that much, that she was now given The Stare in response to her misdeeds. This was the look of the cat witnessing their owner come back home, and who watched warily yet guiltily because the owner was blocking its only exit and the cat was anticipating the moment the owner would notice what exactly it had done with the curtains in the living room.

 

Alphys liked cats. She wished she could have one, but sadly she could only know of them from how they were depicted in her favorite anime and other shows. From what she knew, these creatures were adorable, but sneaky and treacherous. And incredibly self-centered.

 

… Looks like they’re stuck on the awkward train. Great.

Honestly, it was beyond her how Sans had not even made the slightest remark about having her take some of his belongings without asking for his permission. Maybe he really did care that little about letting her do whatever she pleases. Part of her wanted to do the same, especially since she knew the context and kept trying to remind herself that _this_ human was not supposed to be that dangerous… But how _could_ they know that for sure?

 

The human gave her a nervous and somewhat guilty look, and then immediately went to put the jacket neatly on the coatrack next to the entry door — probably the exact place where she had originally found it. Alphys tried to stay on guard… But it seemed that what Sans had said was true. This human had some proper manners, at least.

 

“I finished cleaning about thirty minutes ago. At first I thought I’d just wait for Sans to come back, but… This place just feels too sad and weird when nobody’s there.” she finally answered, a sheepish and shy smile trembling on her face. Totally a cat thing to do. “So I just borrowed a jacket and left a note on the TV in case he came back while I was out. I just thought I’d go take a walk in a place where it’s… normal to feel lonely.”

 

Alphys thought briefly of the places that could possibly fit this description and wouldn’t have required anyone to teleport in order to effectively reach them in a reasonable amount of time.

 

“You mean Waterfall?” she asked, lifting a non-amused eyebrow.

 

Dawn bit her bottom lip, averting the lizard’s gaze but soon nodding tensely. “Yeah. That was the plan at first, but then I realized it’d take much longer than I had planned, so… I turned around before I actually reached it.”

 

The reasoning was sound, and she looked perfectly honest, albeit a bit too shy for Alphys to completely disregard the possibility that she might be hiding something from her. But judging from her general demeanor…

Yes, it still seemed more likely that this human was restraining her movements and carefully choosing her words because of a kind yet somewhat awkward intent to appear as harmless as possible in order to break the ice as much as she could, more than because of something that would truly be malice.

 

“This place is a lot bigger than I anticipated… I would’ve loved to keep going at least until I reached the beginning of Waterfall, I always wondered what it’d look like in real life— it already looks gorgeous in the game… B-but I didn’t want Sans to worry. I’m sure he’s already got a lot on his mind, and he’s already been through so much… the last thing I’d want to do is bring him even more trouble.”

 

The human was not looking at anything anymore. She seemed to talk just for the sake of saying more things. Maybe there was that hope that the more she talked and said things to make herself look harmless and nice, the more she would manage to overcome the awkwardness.

 

She was still being very careful with her words, either because she wanted to be sure that she would not accidentally say something that would upset her due to her knowledge of specifically intimate details regarding her and the other ‘characters’ of that video game, or because she wanted to look as innocent and gentle as possible until the right moment to attack was found. It looked more and more like the former, thankfully; but then again, what exactly _was_ the difference between the two? The body language would be identical, since in both cases the goal was the same: make her interlocutor lower her guard.

 

“So it’s true. You really know every-thing there’s to know about this place.” The scientist’s look hardened warily. “Everything there is to know about us personally.”

 

“W-well… Y-y-yeah. I’m… sorry?”

 

Ugh. Will you two just get this over with already.

 

The monster shook her head heavily without looking at her, mumbling under her breath that there was no point in apologizing about this sort of thing and that they should just go to the kitchen because she should eat her dinner and since they were about to have a long chat anyway then she preferred to have the possibility to sit down.

Dawn did not find anything to say in order to either agree or object with her, so she merely followed her guidance and took a seat on the opposite side of the table. She still wasn’t feeling hungry enough yet, so the size of the sandwich intimidated her just a bit; however, the pleasant smell certainly made her want to at least give it a try.

 

Besides, hey! This was her chance to taste some monster food, wasn’t it? As it turned out, at least at first, this really tasted mostly like regular food— only one real difference was noticeable. There was this slight tingling sensation in her mouth, almost like some small sparks of static electricity, even though it really was different than that…

Strangely enough, it did not feel nearly as uncomfortable as her words made it sound like, way on the contrary; it was almost like a fifth taste that her body was not naturally able to feel or interpret correctly, and due to her inability to feel this taste properly, her brain was simply making up some kind of mystical impulse in order to grasp its nature as best as it could.

 

 _The taste of magic, probably. How stupid is that, ha._

 

The strangest part was when, as she swallowed, she felt the entirety of what she had intuitively assumed to be fully solid matter… merely dissolve into thin air, somewhere between her throat and her stomach. Oh well, part of her had actually been somewhat expecting this from what had been theorized by the fandom anyway.

When she raised her eyes and noticed that Alphys was still there and watching her in complete silence, she tried to thank her with a warm smile— but the scientist merely answered that Sans had been the one responsible for bringing it in the first place. Awkward.

 

“Do you… want some?” the human asked tentatively, handing the sandwich closer to her.

 

“I already had dinner. Thanks.”

… Welp. She really was not making it easy to build a constructive conversation, was she?

Did she do something wrong? Was it because she was a human? Was it because she was a complete stranger to her but just so happened to know everyone already because of a game? Was it because she was the ‘Anomaly’ responsible for the Resets…?

 

Just do something to break the ice already, geez!

 

Admittedly, since Sans had forgiven her and all the other players so easily… She had sort of assumed that everyone else would either not know about the situation, or be even _more_ okay with it than he had been. If anyone had the most rights to feel hurt and angry at them, it had to be him; the fact that Alphys would give her the cold shoulder like that… She really had not expected anything like this.

 

Then again, if _Alphys_ of all ~~characters~~ people was acting like this… It had to mean that she had been hurt as well. Even though she was not sure by what exactly, she at least had a list of guesses, and she certainly felt the urge to amend to whatever pains she had unwillingly inflicted.

 

“L-look, I’m… I’m pretty sure saying that will mean nothing by now, but…” She inhaled sharply in order to increase her confidence and look more serious when she raised her grave eyes towards her. “I’m really sorry for what the game’s been doing to all of you. Whether in this timeline or in the other ones…”

 

“It’s okay.” she answered hastily, but she was avoiding her look. “I… I know you probably wouldn’t have done something like this if you knew. You wouldn’t have gone to… that extent, at least.”

 

“Everybody here is so sweet. Of course nobody in their right minds would want to _wish_ pain or death on people like you.” Dawn murmured with a sad smile. “I’m glad Sans found a way to end it and give you a true happy ending.” She paused, but soon added with a brighter smile: “ _All_ of you.”

 

“We… we’re not there yet.”

“Ha, ha… Sorry, you’re right. Sans said it’d take a few weeks before the machine’s ready.” And honestly? The wait had to be unbearable.

 

How hard had it to feel like to be stuck in a Near-Genocide ending where everyone they cared about was long dead, just so they could save them later…?

There was nothing to worry about because they would succeed; but this was so unfair nonetheless… Sans, Alphys, everyone, they had to miss everybody so much, and they still had to wait, only to be greeted with people that would never acknowledge what they would have gone through, or even that they had been saved from a horrible fate through these heartbreaking hardships?

Heck, she had never had the chance to meet them in person, and yet _she_ missed them already.

 

“… I wish everyone could be here with us. I know it won’t even matter in the end because the Reset will bring them back, but I still wish they could be alive and well _right now_ , and…”

 

The human let her last sentence linger on the tip of her tongue as, when she raised her bittersweet gaze towards the lizard, she lost both her nostalgic smile and her words.

 

“And what?” Alphys asked coldly, as her harsh yet conflicted and shy look behind her glasses would dare scold nothing but the floor. “That you could’ve “befriended” them? This is what you’re all interested in, isn’t it? To finally get to meet them too?”

 

Before the human could find the energy and words to move her lips in a coherent way, her eyes remained stuck gawking at the view: the way Alphys was glaring without daring to meet her eyes directly… A lot of words could have tried to describe it individually, without quite grasping its deepest intent. This glare was stern, but not aggressive; hurtful, but not mean-spirited.

 

“I know this must be hard in your specific situation, but you need to get real.” she added after just a split second, with a mystical tone that entirely fit with the meaning behind her eyes. Mysterious and full of wonder… but ruthless. “You’re not the self-insert protagonist from a cheesy fanfiction, so stop acting like it. We’re not prizes you get when you complete “side-quests” in a game.”

 

She gaped. “O-of _course_ you’re not! I know you’re real, now. And that’s exactly because of that…”

 

“That’s it, huh…? Because we’re not just pixels anymore, you want to take your chance and live your own adventure here?” The lizard wearily spat a morose, yet bitter cackle. “Why do you want to help us so badly? Because you know us from the game? Because we’re “celebrities” where you come from? Because if anyone believes you when you’re back home, you’ll get to brag about it?”

 

“What— No!”

 

“Then why? If you’re so sure, then why are you so interested in helping random strangers who basically just ripped you from everything you’ve ever known, including your own universe?!” Alphys’s outburst struck like thunderbolt. “If your reason is not because you’d “already know us” from the video game, then I don’t want to know how long your naivety would’ve lasted in the hands of any other criminals.”

 

“You— you’re not _criminals_!” the human jerked, offended and heart-struck.

 

“And what tells you that?!” she shrieked. “We’ve just met! You don’t know us!”

 

A long silence fell. When she felt her limbs start to shake, Alphys realized that, in the heat of the moment, she had stood up in a jolt; yet, she decided to stay perfectly still and watch: soon, she noticed exactly what kind of face was hiding on the opposite side of the table.

Hiding, indeed. The human had left her seat and was now almost entirely made invisible due to her hiding spot between the chair and the table, with just the top half of her head and the tips of her fingers still daring to sneak their way above the table. The only reason this half head was still sticking out was probably out of nothing but mere courtesy, as the turmoil roaring in her eyes contained a deluge of emotions, none of which could raise her confidence or reassure her from the glowing thunderstorm raging right in front of her.

 

Alphys slowly realized that she had let her magic out.

 

From a monster’s perspective, this kind of behavior was rarely ever considered to be something to be truly reckoned with. In most cases, a monster’s inability to control their magic when overwhelmed by emotions was undeniable evidence of this monster’s inexperience when it came to actually handling their magic in a precise and calculated way; the fact that no real bullets were present only proved Alphys’s lack of power and actual intent.

 

Still; seeing the look on the human’s face, one did not need to know much about her species’ culture to deduce that she definitely did not see this situation under the same perspective. Besides, Alphys knew the basics of human biology and electricity’s effects on their body; she doubted her ridicule sparks could be truly harmful unless she were to put her all into them, but she guessed that they probably looked intimidating enough as they were.

 

The scientist immediately lost the scowl on her muzzle and slowly went back to sitting at the kitchen table, slightly trembling. The air kept crackling with little white sparks for a few more seconds, but they soon died down when the curvy spines in the back of her head gradually deflated back to their usual position. She kept blinking forcedly a few more times, until the electric color in her eyes calmed down as well.

 

“I… I-i’m sorry I lashed out like this. I had a long day.” she muttered apologetically. “I’m sorry I scared you. I lost it a little, but, I’m not actually going to hurt you. I promise.”

 

The human waited for one more second, just to ensure that everything had calmed down enough; but soon, she gulped, nodded, then slowly and shakily, but surely made her way back on her seat.

 

“I-I never thought you’d…” She shook her head immediately, nervously interrupting her sentence. “S-sorry, that’s not how I should put it… What I wanted to say was…” She stopped again; she tried to turn a few words in her mind, but sadly, only one conclusion could be drawn after she achieved almost a full minute of silence: “… There really isn’t any way I can make it sound like I wasn’t about to compare you with how you’re depicted in the game. I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s… I-it’s okay.” Alphys repeated one more time, sighing. “I’m sure you can’t help it, especially if you’ve known the game for a while. How long does it make for you?”

 

“O-oh, uh… I-it must’ve been a bit less than half a year by now. I think.” Dawn took a short moment to reminisce the details. “I mean, I knew it existed before that, since my best friend kept telling me about it until I gave in and asked her what it was about. She’d even started chatting about it at _school_ , of all times. That’s just how determined she was.” She paused to repress a little chuckle, mumbling humorously for herself: “Ha. _Determined_.”

 

Alphys froze, then blinked in what appeared to be a mixture between shock and very slow, horror-inducing realization. “S-school…?”

 

Dawn rose a confused face with wide eyes. “Oh, yeah. I’m in high school. You… know what it is, right? Do you guys have a different education system or…?”

 

“N-no, but, I just…” She fidgeted stressfully. “H-h-how o-old are you…?”

 

The human stared blankly. “… Fifteen?”

This single word had the same effect as lightning. Alphys’s muzzle trembled in an even more nervous way than before, to such extent that her glasses seemed to fall out. She buried her head in her clawed hands, her elbows heavily resting on the table.

 

“… You’re just a teenager. You’re not wearing stripes so I just assumed, but… Oh God. I’m talking existential crisis material with a kid. And I lashed out.”

 

… Apparently she had assumed that she was a lot older than she really was. This fact confused Dawn even further at first, because strangers sometimes mistook her for a twelve-year-old, but never for an _adult_. However, she soon remembered just how much monsters knew about humans in the first place— that was to say, hardly anything. She would have expected Alphys to know the difference due to her watching so much anime, but then again… Maybe she just didn’t know how to compare voluntarily exaggerated drawings with their real life counterparts.

 

Part of her felt a little offended that the lizard would call her a _kid_ in the exact way she was saying it, but then again, she had to admit that this whole talk they had was, for the most part, flying over her head, or just giving her a headache. She could understand that Alphys had been hurt because of the video game being real, but… What was that thing about “prizes” all about? She just wanted to get to know these guys better and have the chance to potentially be their…

Oh, that was it, wasn’t it? That thing about befriending them just for… the ‘pride’ of getting to know famous, magic ‘characters’ that everybody thought to be fictional but who eventually turned out to be real. The ‘pride’ of saying that you knew a celebrity personally, times ten.

 

She wasn’t doing it for _pride_ , was she? These guys were real. They had their own lives. All she wanted was to… What _was_ she doing it for? If she had been kidnapped by any other kinds of magical creatures like aliens she didn’t know, or whom she would have known beforehand to be hostile, would she have reacted the same way? Absolutely not.

… Maybe Alphys had a point.

 

“I… I was just surprised, don’t worry… It’s a-alright if you needed to get some stuff out of your chest, too. I’m sure it must’ve been hard for you to… learn that you’re a video game character or whatever… That’s some crazy stuff. I h-have no idea what it must feel like for you… I-I’m sorry I made you feel that way.” Dawn murmured uneasily. “I-I think I’m starting to understand what you meant about acting like I know everyone and all, too… I c-can’t exactly help it s-so I wouldn’t want to make any promises, but I’ll do my best to… p-pretend I don’t know you? I-I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to do actually, b-but…”

 

“You don’t have to do anything, I’m the one who lost it.” Alphys assured, shaking her head vehemently. “I mean, you just got kidnapped. I guess I can’t completely blame you for clinging to what you know of the game… Of course you’d try to feel at home with us so you’ll better cope with the stress or something. I’m sure that if you didn’t know anything about us or this place… You’d probably freak out for days. Magic and monsters don’t exist in your world, right? Sans told me so.”

 

The human lowered her eyes and absent-mindedly gazed in the distance as if she could look past the table; but the slow and heavy nod she soon made showed that she was fully listening.

 

“Truth be told, I… I guess I was projecting a bit. Y-you probably know that, but… I’m k-kinda the craziest monster around when it comes to getting fond of fictional stories and whatnot. So when I learned about the game… Of course I started making some wild fantasies and thought about things like, h-how I’d react if one day I was the one who got kidnapped by the characters from my favorite anime.”

The human nearly said _“It’s_ Mew Mew: Kissy Cutie _, right?”_ by reflex, but fortunately managed to stop this thought from being uttered. Of course it was _Mew Mew: Kissy Cutie_ , the game made it clear enough (although it was unclear whether it was a dating simulation game or an actual anime — both versions probably existed). There was no use saying this out loud other than just increasing the awkwardness and making Alphys uncomfortable for no reason; other than by just being the stupidest and _smoothest_ Captain Obvious that could ever be.

 

Alphys was not looking at her anymore, so she did not notice anything that had ever transpired through her interlocutor’s head.

 

“I…’m not exactly sure I would’ve handled things the way I should, either. But I got to think about it. So… I know things must already be hard for you, and I’m sure that thinking of your situation as just “getting the chance to meet the game’s characters” is tempting and the most reassuring option you have… But if you can— please just try to consider this.” she muttered softly, but shyly and uncomfortably. “I’ll repeat just one more time… We’re not your prizes. We’ll just be neighbors for some time.” Her look swiftly shifted as she cracked a small, bittersweet smile: “I must admit, part of me was actually excited to meet someone like you— I have so many questions about your world and that video game, I swear that you are NOT ready.”

 

A small, yet genuine and somewhat mischievous giggle escaped her, and its honesty was contagious enough that soon, Dawn found herself laughing as well for an instant.

 

“Anyway… I’d really like to be your friend, eventually. It could be a lot of fun. But… I’d just really like it if that friendship could be because of something other than the game, you know? I mean… I g-guess I like to think that I could make real friends all by myself, instead of because of my status or something… I d-don’t know.”

 

When silence fell in the kitchen, Dawn was left to ponder a little more the lizard’s words; it seemed so intricate, she was struggling to try and make some sense out of it.. She just _knew_ that there were some hidden ambiguities concealed within the monster’s speech that could explain just how deeply she cared about that issue and why she would have bothered to speak for so long about it… But at least, she thought she easily had the gist of it and could understand where that came from.

 

She wondered whether wanting to befriend someone you literally met for the first time but grew to know very intimately because you saw that person through a screen and got to learn nearly everything about that person, was what being a creep or even a stalker was all about. It probably was. Even if she hadn’t done that on purpose because she was certain these people were fictive at first, the result was the same.

 

“I… I don’t think I got everything you wanted to tell me with this, but I’ll do my best to be careful.” she answered with a sheepish smile.

 

“It’s okay, I probably didn’t say it in the clearest way either. I’m still not sure how to say all of this anyway, so… I’m really just glad that you wanted to listen, at least.” Alphys dismissed lightly. “You’ve probably had a lot on your mind too, right?”

 

“Oh yeah, totally.” the teenager sighed in exhaustion. “I’m completely new to all this magic and soul stuff and now _time travel_ and I’m still trying to wrap my head around a lot of things with you guys being more than just video game characters, and all at the same time I don’t want to be a burden to any of you because I know from the game how much stuff you’ve all been through, but _now_ I have to be careful because acting like I know this stuff and want to help you guys as if I’ve known you for ages is making _you_ uncomfortable, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid and why I wanted to just be nice and helpful with you in the first place so you wouldn’t have to deal with me bringing you guys trouble…” There was another sigh, even longer and heavier than the previous one. She buried her head in her hands and took some time to breathe, until she admitted: “… My head hurts.”

 

The scientist repressed a short, yet soft and warm laugh, as she watched the human with a satisfied and an almost, somewhat motherly look. Maybe more like the look of that protective big sister. In any case, it didn’t last for long, as she soon stood up from her chair, opened a cupboard, took out a glass and went to the sink. When Dawn was alerted by the sound of the running water, she noticed with surprise that the height of the sink was completely normal. Wasn’t there something in the game about that sink being insanely high so Papyrus could stack more bones in the cupboard below or something…? Oh who cared, she was too tired to play the ‘seven mistakes’ game. Maybe the sink was magic. Everything was magic here anyway.

 

Soon, Alphys handed her a glass full of cold water and a joking, yet caring smile. The human thanked her sincerely yet tiredly and took her time to empty it. It entirely evaporated as soon as she swallowed it, but at least it did seem to have some relieving effect on her headache.

Even the water counted as magic food. What the heck.

 

“… This place is weird.” she laughed incredulously. “It’s amazing, and I _know_ I shouldn’t be expecting anything less, but it’s _weird_. I have so many questions about everything.”

 

“Same here. Take your time.” the scientist added jokingly, nodding in a mockingly solemn and wise gesture. “What aren’t you getting yet?”

 

“I’m just… not really sure? I mean, it looks so simple. I got kidnapped because the video game that exists in my world is affecting this one, and me being here can stop it. I really don’t know what else I should be getting from the situation apart from, well, the fact that you guys need me to stay here for some time until you’ve solved the problem once and for all.” She blinked slowly, then inhaled sharply through her nose, pursing her lips tightly. “But all at the same time, a lot of this situation just… doesn’t make that much sense to me.”

 

Alphys blinked blankly. “How so?”

 

“It’s probably ‘cause my best friend is a huge science nerd and she’s always saying stuff like ‘time travel doesn’t exist’ or whatever, so with that and _magic_ being a thing here… I guess I still need to adjust to my mind being blown in more ways than just one.” She took a small pause to let a small yet bright and incredulous giggle escape her lips. “Right now, honestly, everything that happened sounds like the sort of stuff that’d happen in a bad shipping fanfiction or something. You even said it yourself.”

 

As if taken by a sudden fateful doubt, or as if she had just been stricken with the realization of just _who_ she had been saying this to, the human’s face suddenly fell as she gave an almost fearful look at what she very well knew to be an otaku as well as an obsessive fanfiction writer who, if rumors were to be trusted, was leaning towards the cheesy romantic stories at best, the smut crackfics at worst.

 

“Please don’t ship me with anyone I don’t know how old anyone is here but I’m really just fifteen and in my country it’s illegal.” The realization of what she had just said struck once more, and part of her felt incredibly embarrassed and unclean for even having merely thought of this possibility on her own. Maybe she had been reading too many of those fanfics herself and had been corrupted by the fandom. She immediately face-palmed. “Uuugh, why did I say that…”

 

Dawn was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a repressed yet somewhat sly and mocking giggle.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Alphys brought a small slightly trembling fist to the end of her muzzle and forced a cough, avoiding her look. “T-there really are that many fanfics in your world? Ones about… THIS happening, even?”

 

Call it whatever you like, I call it a show. A very boring sitcom for now, at that. I hope there’ll be at least some action to spice things up at some point.

 

“Uhhh…” Okay, what was _anyone_ supposed to answer to that? This joke was getting slightly too meta for her own sanity and part of her was just starting to consider the possibility, and the idea of the existential crisis it induced wasn’t pleasant, to say the least. “… K-kinda? Well, usually most of the fanfics I’ve seen that turn around that sort of dumb plot choose a… b-better setting. Like, you guys are already on the surface or at least you’re all a-alive. A-anyway most of the fanfics where Sans actually _does_ something productive, end up in him getting paired with someone, so, uh, I usually avoid to read those ones. _And_ I promise I’m not saying this just because you’re here.”

 

Alphys rolled her eyes jokingly. “Hey, don’t worry. This is real life here, you’re safe from that sort of weird fan fantasies.”

 

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but _somehow_ hearing this from a video game character doesn’t help at all.” the human retorted sarcastically, raising her eyebrows in an unamused expression yet smirking in a mixture between a joking intent, and pure disbelief. “No offense, but reality looks totally broken to me right now.”

 

The scientist exploded in loud laughs, and soon Dawn followed. The concert lasted for at least a few minutes, until exhaustion had the better of them and their respective needs for breathing took over their hilarity.

 

“Anyway… Sans didn’t tell me all that much about how it went.” Alphys eventually said. “How did you two… handle the situation?”

“… I was stupid. I don’t think there’s any other way to put it.” the human muttered sheepishly. “Craziest thing is, Sans thought at first that I was lying to his face and being an evil manipulator or something, while it was all really just a _big_ misunderstanding. So… that was awkward. I’m just glad it’s solved now.”

 

Alphys repressed a small laugh once more, but maybe they had just laughed too much and they had now both exhausted their laughing batteries.

 

“Anyway, it’s… weird. Before I came here and all, at first I felt bad for him as, like, a _character_ , because of what he’s going through and all, but then when I got to see what the fandom did to him and how big a deal he’d become, I g-guess I kinda started to think he was… overrated?” She marked a pause to look down and bit her lip shamefacedly. “N-now that I know that it was all real, though… I-i really feel bad about thinking that.”

 

Oh good, when she was acting so docile I thought she was just going to be one of those mindless fangirls that do nothing but follow him around like a little puppy.

 

“He’s being so nice, and… hopeful?” She blinked in confusion. “I really just want him to succeed. He deserves to reach that happy ending and then be left in peace for the rest of his life, the poor guy.” Dawn suddenly stopped her train of thoughts and froze when she saw the peculiar look on Alphys’s face. “… What? Did I say something wrong?”

 

Wait. That wasn’t the _“ You said something wrong and now my SOUL is broken due to the existential crisis”_ look. That was a _smug_ look.

 

“Oh no, it’s not what you said. It’s just… he showed me your internet some time when he was trying to tell me about the video game.”

 

Dawn’s eyes widened in shock and horror. “You— you guys saw… the _fandom_?”

“Not much, sadly.” Alphys muttered dejectedly. “Sans wanted to convince me that he wasn’t just pulling my leg with that story of time travels and video game stuff, so eventually he just turned on his machine, connected his computer to one of your browsers, told me to search for the word ‘Undertale’ and said that it’d give me all the answers I needed.”

 

“Oh… ouch. He didn’t even _try_ to be tactful with it…?”

 

“I really was annoying him and he probably thought I was wasting his time, by this point.” she shrugged and rolled her eyes jokingly. “Anyway, uh, long story short, let’s say he forgot to tell me how ‘Undertale’ was actually spelled.”

 

Dawn looked like she was about to fall off her chair while her eyes would just pop out and fly into the ceiling like a pair of helium balloons.

 

“That’s how I was convinced.” Alphys chuckled awkwardly. “I mean, I think we both know that he couldn’t have made this stuff up if he wanted to.”

 

This was a nightmare.

The poor guys. The poor, poor tortured souls, victims of the internet and the naivety and innocence of sweet blissful monsters who did nothing wrong and came all the way from their cocoon of virtual reality without knowing anything of humanity’s darkest side. Tainted forever by the merciless desires of a lusting fandom.

 

“You should have seen him.” Alphys’s hilarity was becoming harder and harder to repress as she was reminiscing. “He looked ready to blast the entire thing. Pretty sure the only reason he didn’t was because he needed it to save the universe or whatever. So instead he just grabbed the power cable and pulled it out. I kinda wanted to see the safer part of what you guys could’ve been working on, but Sans forced me to leave and asked me to never touch his machine again.”

 

There were no words. Dawn felt so sorry and all at the same time so powerless.

 

“He looks tough and all, but he can get flustered way too easily.” she shrugged again. “Anyway… I’ve been having this little suspicion for a while, and what you said about him only brought even more… consistence to this headcanon.”

 

“What… exactly do you mean by that?”

 

“Hmm. How would you feel if I told you that even if he’ll never admit it out loud and just pretend he’s fine like always, he’s way too shy to look up any of the fandom stuff?”

 

“I’d… be relieved? Honestly, I totally understand him on that part. That must’ve been horrible.” Dawn winced overdramatically. “I’m actually happy that he won’t try to look for even _more_ of that stuff. I don’t know what he’s seen but he’s definitely seen enough to scar him… I REALLY don’t know how he’d react, knowing what the fandom has done with him.”

 

At first, upon listening to her small rant, Alphys gave her a sheepish look, probably feeling somewhat bad about her friend. But when the last words fell into silence, the lizard paused— and, very gradually, an evil Grinch-like grin crept its way up on her muzzle as she slowly turned her head towards the human, sending her a demonic look and playing with her nonexistent yet somehow still very obviously visible eyebrows in that insufferably smug and sly attitude of _“ Ooh no. You can’t say that and then stop there. Now you HAVE to tell me everything. I DEMAND the details. ALL the details.”_

Dawn saw her entire life flashing through her eyes. She was definitely going to be judged for her sins sooner or later.

 

“… O-ooookay uhhh, where could I even begin. There’s just so much.”

“Just start with the juiciest part.” Alphys whispered sneakily, letting her elbows rest on the table and crossing her clawed fingers so she could rest her head on the stable structure and stare at her with a demonic grin.

 

The teenager hesitated for at least half a minute.

But in the end… Who the hell cared?

 

They had already seen the worst part of the fandom, so it wasn’t like she could _really_ make anything worse. Besides, Alphys was the one asking, not her. So why the hell should that fourth wall still stay in place after Sans had worked so hard to obliterate it already.

She sighed, but ended up with a small evil smile in the corner of her mouth and she calmly took her chair in order to bring it next to her, so they could sit side by side. And then, she pulled out of her jeans’ pocket her Special Attack.

 

… She was _so_ going to burn in hell for this. But this was totally going to be worth it.

 

“Well, I _may_ or may not have a bunch of fanarts and videos downloaded on my phone.” she said in a fake careless tone, mockingly pretending that it was not that much of a big deal.

 

When the lizard widened her eyes in sudden interest, she did not hesitate to let her check out her phone for a few seconds; but Alphys immediately returned it to her and asked her to just move on with what they _really_ wanted to do with it. So she turned it on without further ado, and…

 

“Ah, bummer. It’s almost out of batteries, and I’m sure you guys won’t have a charger around for this thing.”

 

“Shh.” Alphys shook her head soothingly yet overdramatically and jokingly, her smile still widely visible on her muzzle. “Who needs chargers when you have… electricity magic!”

 

Jumping out of her seat to stand and take an anime-esque pose, she pointed dramatically at her phone screen and immediately a few bolts zapped around in the air, which gradually raised the battery percentage in the right corner of the screen, and incidentally made Dawn’s hair stand straight on her head and start floating in the air.

Too shocked by being literally surrounded by electric waves, too fearful to move and accidentally get zapped by touching anything, and yet too happily surprised to see _Alphys_ make anime real and have some genuine fun looking voluntarily stupid doing so, the human could do nothing but gape in disbelief with a wide open grin.

Alphys calmly and proudly sat back down on her chair and resumed her former position with her head resting on her delicate and sly crossed arms.

 

“Now. Please continue.” she purred smugly.

 

… They _really_ were doing this. Oh boy.

 

“Hmm… Do you know what an ‘AU’ is? As in, ‘Alternate Universe’?”

 

“Oh! You mean things around the quantum multiverse theory, trees of possibilities and—”

 

“No-no-no.” She shook her head with a giant grin slashing her face from ear to ear. “Not in the _real physics_ meaning of the word. In the FANDOM meaning of the word. Did you get to see stuff like that with your own anime fandoms?”

 

“You mean w-what the fans do when they think it’d be fun to change a few things in the canon universe, for example by switching the roles of some characters?”

 

“Exactly.” the human nodded exaggeratingly widely and slowly. “Let me introduce you to the wonders of the Undertale fandom. Just a little warning— You will NEVER see Sans the same way after that. Ooh, how about we start with _Underswap_? How would _you_ imagine a character that looks like Sans, but with PAPYRUS’s personality?”

 

Alphys pondered the deepest implications of the possibility for an entire minute, as she remained perfectly still and blankly staring at the human without even blinking.

Then, she straightened her back and her head rose before she clicked her tongue loudly.

 

“Okay, now I NEED to see this.”

* * *

When Dawn was done eating her dinner and the two girls had been willing to find a more comfortable place to spend the rest of their evening, they had made their way to the basement and sat on the green couch that Sans had left there. Alphys had said that the basement was soundproof, which could only come to their advantage if they wanted to keep the fanart and their howls of hysteric laughter as much a secret as it could possibly be.

 

After a few hours of chatting around and listening to or watching what the phone had in store for them, the weight of the events eventually had the better of them. When Sans went down for a two-in-the-morning snack and came to check how they were doing, he found the two girls sound asleep on the sofa, Dawn’s phone threatening to fall out of her half-open hand.

* * *

It was early morning.

Dawn and Alphys were still snoozing serenely.

Then, quietly at first but gradually increasing in tone and volume, a voice sneakily rose from the surrounding silence.

 

 ** _… beautiful day outside..._**

 ** _Birds are singing... Flowers are blooming..._**

 

Dawn mumbled some grumpy curses under her breath as she attempted to wake up in confusion. Her groggy definitely-not-morning-person mind made her feel like she had heard this before, but her neuronal connections were still too slow to properly process what was happening.

 

Was it morning already…? Shouldn’t her phone’s alarm be going off then? Naaah, if her phone hadn’t gone off yet then it had to be way too soon for this. She still had time.

 

 ** _... should be burning in hell._**

 

She opened her eyes in shock as the horrifying realization suddenly clicked. In a pitiful attempt to jerk up while not being completely awake, she fell over the sofa and accidentally had Alphys accompany her in response to gravity’s invitation to meet the hard floor in the process.

 

 ** _Turn around kid, it’d be a crime,_**

 

Alphys forcefully detached her head away from the floor in alarm as she jerked up awake and shrieked some panicked nonsensical words along the lines of “wu-wu-wu-whaaa?”

 

First surprise: for some reason, the two girls and the couch were now back in the living room.

 

 ** _If I had to go back on the promise that I made for you,_**

 ** _So don’t step over that line,_**

 

Dawn, becoming whiter and whiter by the second, stood up as fast as she could, letting Alphys stumble on the floor again. She nervously turned her head to apologize, but did not make any attempt to help her up and instead dashed away from the sofa as fast as possible.

 

Second surprise: her cell phone was gone.

 

 ** _Or else friend, you’re gonna have a bad time._**

 

Dawn kept running all around the living room in panic and rising anger, she tried to rifle through drawers and cupboards first in the living room and then in the kitchen before she considered searching upstairs, but for some reason she was simply unable to find where that damned voice was coming from.

 

Third surprise: given the volume of that damned music, she was pretty sure that her phone’s speakers were not supposed to have enough power to play any song that loud without any help from peripheral devices.

 

 ** _So let’s go, let the room get chiller_**

 ** _Let’s go, dirty brother killer_**

 

Every time she felt like she had found its origin, as soon as she had made her way there it appeared that it was now somehow coming from the other end of the room. It was as if the origin of the voice could teleport at will just to mess with her.

 

 ** _Go ahead and try to hit me if you’re able,_**

 

“SANS!” Dawn ultimately scowled in pure rage, her face red as a tomato. “WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU PUT MY PHONE!?”

 

 ** _I can tell you’re getting really sick of trying,_**

 

Dawn could barely hear underneath the song that _a certain someone_ was doing his best not to laugh too loudly, but she quickly found the origin of that last voice and vociferously stomped her way to him, snatching her phone away from his hands and turning the song off in an instant.

 

… Sweet, _sweet_ silence. None of the sighs she had previously experienced in her entire life had ever been as relieving as the one she just released.

 

“Sans. You’d better have a _very good reason_ for waking us up at whatever-in-the-morning it is and give Alphys a heart attack.”

 

Sans seemed about to lift a finger in order to say something, but the expression on his skull made it clear what he had in mind, so she just interrupted him before he could actually say it.

 

“I’ll have you know that trolling innocent people who are just trying to sleep peacefully is _not_ a reason good enough.”

 

“what do you mean?” he immediately retorted in a pseudo innocent tone and with a trollesquely solemn and betrayed look. “i just wanted to make sure you’d be up and dandy right away, since you wanted to help me today and everything. _you_ were the one who told me you wanted to get up early.”

 

Dawn hardly listened to him, since as soon as she had got her hands back on her phone, she had simply started skimming through its contents in order to try to assess the damage, because she just _knew_ that he wouldn’t have stopped at just _one_ joke.

 

A grumble escaped her gritting teeth when she noticed immediately that he had changed her wallpaper for nothing else but a bad MS Paint meme. Apparently he had seen the series of cringe-inducing posts parodying his “bad time” speech and eventually opted for the one where admittedly, he didn’t actually look too bad, and the text merely said _“ Youre on the verje of experiancin a very unfortunet outcom my deerest frend.”_

 

This looked terrible. But somehow, deep down in her SOUL, she just _knew_ that this was far from the damage Sans could have done to her only remaining property.

 

… Oh. There it was. She hesitated between sighing and face-palming. After a split second of hesitation, she did both.

 

“… You set exactly forty-eight alarms on my phone so it’d play an intentionally bad fandub of the line “You’d be dead where you stand” followed by the extended version of _Megalo Strike Back_ ’s Chara remix for _every single hour of every single day in the week_. I don’t even know why I’m surprised.” The only reason she took a pause was because she needed to breathe. “ _And_ you changed my ringtone for… Wait, I don’t recognize this file.”

 

She perfectly knew that if she played that sound file she would regret it, but sadly for her and for everyone else in the room, her curiosity had the better of her.

 

After a split second of static, an obvious sign that it was badly recorded and that the audio had a poor quality which could only mean that listening to this would not be the most pleasant experience, she actually heard Sans’s voice.

 

As in, the _real_ Sans’s voice.

 

 _hey there buddy chum pal friend buddy pal chum bud friend fella bruther amigo pal buddy friend chummy chum chum pal i don’t mean to be rude my friend pal home slice bread slice dawg but i gotta warn ya if u take one more diddly darn step right there im going to have to diddly darn snap ur neck and wowza wouldn't that be a crummy juncture—_

 

Dawn paused the recording and raised a deadpan look.

 

Sans’s grin was wider than ever. You could literally _breathe_ the smug in his glowing pellets.

 

“I can’t believe you actually dubbed that one yourself oh my God.”

 

“hey, if it can console you, i also changed mine.”

 

And he shrugged. And he raised a different ancient-looking cell phone from his pocket and pressed a button.

 

 ** _A do-ah deh, a-do-do, a-do-ah_**

 ** _A do-ah deeh, a-do-do, a-do-ah…_**

 

… Of _all_ the freaking memes he could have found and used as his personal ringtone just for the fun of pissing her off, _Mogolovonio_ started playing.

 

Dawn looked like she could see her entire life flashing through her eyes. Sans finally found the mercy to spare her the rest of the recording as he paused it. But his smug grin only widened.

 

This was a nightmare.

 

 _No. He did NOT do that right now, no no no you have GOT to be kidding me…_

 

 _So_ not only had Sans had the opportunity to mess with her phone, he had apparently managed to retrieve its data _and_ transfer it to his own belongings, meaning that even if she had now her phone with her and under her now would-be constant supervision, she could not be saved.

 

“… Did you search through **_all_** my files?”

 

All traces of anger had disappeared on her blanched face. Only a primal fear could be heard through her words, now.

“ _naaah_. don’t worry about it, i didn’t poke around too much. i only checked out one folder.” His grin expanded again. “the one you named “shitpost.” it was filled with lots of _great_ content, though.”

 

The human froze in place, probably trying to contain her storm of emotions as best she could because she definitely didn’t want an unfortunate murder to occur in such a place.

 

But it was too late.

Nobody would be able to stop this madness now.

 

In the end, she focused all her energy into one sigh, trying to release it as best she could. She just had to stay patient and focus her energy on what needed to be saved, instead of what needed to be killed with fire.

 

“… Alphys. What was that **_one thing_** you said about Sans being too scared to look at the fandom stuff?”

 

Alphys was face-palming.

 

“I meant fanarts. I never said anything about memes.”

 

Dawn had called it. She knew they would have had to burn in hell for their sins, sooner or later.

 

She had just dared to wish that it wouldn’t be _that_ soon and savage.

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	6. Prompter Echoes : Sunday, May 1

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **The Prompter Echoes**

### 2016, May 1st

## Life Spam

###  [» Read the PDF version here! «](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KvghTHOkKNE8tdop2Z9nj3d2BcbE2k2V/view)

###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/183428234372/prompter-echoes-20160501)

* * *

This is the main index where you can choose which way you wish to read the chapter.

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Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


 

* * *

### **Can You Really Call This TVF’s Official Server I Didn’t See Any Temmies Or Anything**

#### — Sunday, May 1, 2016 —

@Yoshua: Guys, did any of you hear about Harlonkie's last twitch event?

@Yoshua: The one where he does some sort of weird magic trick for no reason and then nobody hears from him again so he just lets us try to figure out what happened? :/

@CoolSkeleton03: Dude

@CoolSkeleton03: That happened like forever ago right?

@CoolSkeleton03: Personally i never watched him but uh

@CoolSkeleton03: Whatever if he wants to get some attention by doing the creepy mysterious stunt and making hiself victim of some sort of cheap creepypasta what do you want me to say

@CoolSkeleton03: Are people still talking about it???

@Yoshua: I don't know, my tumblr dash is still clogged with some theories and stuff about it every now and then

@Yoshua: and when I did some research about what that was about it looked like a serious thing ._.

* BlueDoppler is now online [13:52:33]

@Yoshua: Oh hey Lys!

@Yoshua: By any chance, do you know some stuff about Harlonkie's "ghost livestream" that was never recorded or uploaded?

@BlueDoppler: Hahaha

@BlueDoppler: HAHAHA!

@Yoshua: uh

@CoolSkeleton03: ?

* KangarooBrush is now online [13:53:02]

@Yoshua: ok

@KangarooBrush: Hello to you too, Lys :')

@Calliope Quill: Oh, there we go.

@BlueDoppler: Guys, I did it!

@BlueDoppler: I finally DID IT!!

* WinDows Gulim is now online [13:54:13]

@Calliope Quill: Doppler is finally divulging to the wide world the dormant mad scientist who dwells threateningly in the meanderings of her mind, uh?

@KangarooBrush: Isabel, please...

@BlueDoppler: Oh shut up already, Quill. Not now.

@BlueDoppler: This moment is too perfect and I CERTAINLY don't want you to ruin it.

@WinDows Gulim: What's the matter, Lys?

@CoolSkeleton03: Just 2 mins in and i already have no idea what's going on anymore

@CoolSkeleton03: Like wow

@BlueDoppler: This is FINALLY happening, guys. I'm not even kidding.

@Calliope Quill: Now I'm the lost one. What have we been apparently "hyping" for exactly?

@BlueDoppler: Dawn. She's finally doing it.

@Yoshua: OMG

@CoolSkeleton03: Whaaaaaat?

@WinDows Gulim: Noo... Really?

@Calliope Quill: Still in the dark here.

@WinDows Gulim: Oh Glob, I'm so proud of you right now. How did you do it?

@BlueDoppler: Sometimes blackmail is for the greater good =)

@KangarooBrush: Aaw, geez... :')

@BlueDoppler: And now she HAS to play it \o/

@Yoshua: ON LIVESTREAM!

@Yoshua: I WANNA SEE THIS OMG

@Calliope Quill: ... Right. The "Plup Game."

@Calliope Quill: Ooh boy.

@Yoshua: LET'S START THE CALL RIGHT NOW!

@WinDows Gulim: Yosh, she's not even online yet... :')

@Yoshua: THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? LYS JUST BRING HER ALREADY!

@Yoshua: ... You're in her house now, right? o3o

@BlueDoppler: Nah, we just had lunch together. I'm back home with my laptop now.

@BlueDoppler: But I expect her to login in... Maybe a few more minutes?

@Pineapplup: Guess again, Lys. I was stalking.

@Yoshua: YUIFDRTDKJBVFGFJGH

@BlueDoppler: ... Oh.

@Pineapplup: And I REALLY want you to give it back as soon as this is over. I'm counting on you.

@Yoshua: A WILD PIPLUP APPEARED!!!

@BlueDoppler: Don't worry Dawn, it's safe.

@BlueDoppler: C'mon, you can trust me! I'll take good care of it [Winking Sans Emoji]

@Pineapplup: That's exactly what I'm afraid of...

@WinDows Gulim: It's alright P. She'll give back... whatever it is she took from you.

@Pineapplup: Yeah yeah, whatever.

@Pineapplup: Btw, hi Joystick.

@Yoshua: HIIIIIIII

@Yoshua: SO ARE YOU DOING THAT LIVESTREAM OR NOT??? :DDD

@Pineapplup: ... °sigh°

@Pineapplup: I guess I don't have a choice uh.

@Yoshua: no u don't [Excited Onionsan Emoji]

@Pineapplup: ...

@Pineapplup: welp

@Pineapplup: Lys, do you mind if I use your Steam account and reset your game?

@BlueDoppler: You know I don't :p

@Pineapplup: heh

@Pineapplup: I hate yall. Cant believe youd betray me like this.

@Pineapplup: but eh why the heck not

@Pineapplup: Well, I'll see you guys in a few minutes I guess. In the meantime you can prepare the popcorn or whatever

@Yoshua: eeeeeeeee I can't wait!!! ❤️

@Calliope Quill: Well, I'll be off and leave you to... whatever it is you're about to do.

@Calliope Quill: For my part there's still a chapter I'd like to finish today.

@CoolSkeleton03: Oh nice!! Will you review my fanfic too when ur done?

@Calliope Quill: ...

@Calliope Quill: No.

@Calliope Quill: I was about to type a sarcastic comment about the relevance of your writing style, but then I realized it probably wasn't worth the effort.

@Yoshua: Duh. Not everyone types in chatrooms the same way they write novels, Dickens.

@Yoshua: Especially when they're on their phone lmao

* Calliope Quill is now offline [14:01:52]

@WinDows Gulim: Agreed. Phone keyboards are the worst <_<

@Yoshua: btw I LOVE how your story is going so far Arty. I really think it's great!! Don't let the grinch make you think otherwise [Smug Undyne Emoji]

@Yoshua: ... fuck

@BlueDoppler: I didn't know you were a Genocider, Jocelyn 8D

@Yoshua: DANG IT WHY

@Yoshua: Forget about the red. I meant it in the REAL way, of course xD

@Yoshua: I always forget how the bold and italics options change the color of the font instead of ACTUALLY making it bold or italics here. How did you even do that WDG?

@WinDows Gulim: Ehhhh, I have my ways ;)

@CoolSkeleton03: haha thanks yosh

@CoolSkeleton03: you didn't think the megalovania part was too much?

@BlueDoppler: Eh, don't worry about it.

@BlueDoppler: You know how it works with fanfics...

@BlueDoppler: No matter what happens, you can always find worse than you [Laughing Undyne Emoji]

@BlueDoppler: ~~(Case in point with Quill lmao)~~

@KangarooBrush: Um, Lys, no offense, but Isabel is definitely the best writer I've ever seen x')

@BlueDoppler: Well it's not that she's a bad writer. What I mean is that her FANFICS are terrible.

@BlueDoppler: I mean ok she writes like if she was the reincarnation of Tolkien or something.

@BlueDoppler: BUT.

@BlueDoppler: Have you just. READ her stuff?

@KangarooBrush: Of course I have. It was some excellent work [Confused Toriel Emoji]

@BlueDoppler: It's well written, ok.

@BlueDoppler: But she's so attached to the canon, she rejects ANYTHING that isn't 100% confirmed to be in the game.

@BlueDoppler: When you limit yourself so much, how can you make your story interesting? If there's literally no surprises EVER? No secrets? No imagination from HER?

@Yoshua: Haha, good point

@BlueDoppler: Okay she writes wonderfully and she knows how to make ANYTHING sound badass when she writes about it, but...

@BlueDoppler: Her stories are just so boring when you can always see from a mile away what's going to happen :v

@BlueDoppler: By now her writing only makes me snore honestly. At least if she's going to write something and EVERYONE knows how it's gonna end, can't she make it SHORT?

@CoolSkeleton03: [Shocked Undyne Emoji]

@CoolSkeleton03: all hail to the one who could review calliope's fanfics lmao

@BlueDoppler: HAHAHA BOW BEFORE YOUR FANFICTION MASTER MY PRECIOUS SLAVES [Bloodthirsty Flowey Emoji]

@BlueDoppler: xD Seriously though someone really needs to get her off her high horse one of these days

@Yoshua: She brags so much about how writing stuff can only be done her way or else it has to be crap lol

@Yoshua: You think she's trying to compensate on some other thing she's lacking? ;p

@KangarooBrush: Enough you two, please leave her alone with this... If you want to discuss that kind of problems, then talk about it in private. And definitely not behind Isabel's back.

@Yoshua: ... yes ma'am

@KangarooBrush: Anyway... Don't you think it's been a while since Dawn's last message? How's her run going?

@BlueDoppler: ... true [Awkward Alphys Emoji] It must've been at least ten minutes by now...?

@Yoshua: Hey, she's not bailing out NOW is she? [Disapproving Toriel Emoji]

@Yoshua: HEY **@Pineapplup** YOU"RE NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASILY I WANT MY STREAM

@BlueDoppler: I don't know, I don't think she would just stand up like that...

@BlueDoppler: She seemed really attached to that music sheet I found :o It looked like she was feeling embarrassed about it so I guess she composed it, but I can't read shit on musical stuff so it's not like I could understand what's wrong with it lmao

@BlueDoppler: But don't worry, I'm sure she's fine.

@CoolSkeleton03: She's dead [Jumpscare Chara Emoji]

@BlueDoppler: She did look pretty mad an hour ago, so maybe she just F4'd and now that the game's on full screen she forgot everything that's going on around it? idk

@BlueDoppler: You know how she gets when she's deep into something u_u

@BlueDoppler: The rest of the world just "magically disappears" and there's nothing you can do to get her out except smack her in the back of her head or whatever

@WinDows Gulim: At this point I wonder if she'll be the first one to prove that it's possible to die during Flowey's first fight or something like that... [Thinking Papyrus Emoji]

@CoolSkeleton03: No but seriously you think shes past Toriel yet? XD

@KangarooBrush: Getting past Toriel isn't the biggest problem if her health is lowered down to 2 HP within the first few turns x) I'm more concerned about the rest of the Ruins honestly

@KangarooBrush: If she finds a Vegetoid she might get into a bit more trouble...

@CoolSkeleton03: Pff at this point even the first froggit will kill her lmao

@Yoshua: Oh my GOD guys, have some faith in her dammit!

@BlueDoppler: Heh. I don't know, Jocelyn...

@BlueDoppler: Dawn and I have been childhood friends since third grade. You know how rational and all "sciencey" I get all the time, right? But when I tell you that Dawn is literally CURSED by videogames, maybe I'm joking, but it's always been THAT bad.

@BlueDoppler: I don't know how she does it but she just always finds some sort of way to literally break the game. SOMEHOW.

@BlueDoppler: I mean, why did YOU think making her play Undertale was that much of a big deal? :p

@Yoshua: Excuse me what

@BlueDoppler: I can't believe you joined the Plup Game without knowing what it was REALLY about XD

@Yoshua: Hey come on, you know me! I just roll with the flow xD

@Yoshua: And since it was a joke with Dawn at the center of course I couldn't just NOT join lmao

@CoolSkeleton03: Pff ok I know Dawn always says she sucks at video games and that she's so bad there should be an award for that but a CURSE??? lol

@KangarooBrush: I'll admit I don't remember this thing about a curse either... But I guess that if YOU are saying this, then you already have evidence stacked up in order to prove your point? :p

@BlueDoppler: Oh you have no idea, my case is FULL of it.

@BlueDoppler: Here's a random anecdote: there was that time when she was playing Pokemon Platinum and she found a freaking SHINY ABSOL on the FIRST TRY. It was hailing so she had to be extra careful not to faint it and all, so she just decided to try to give it a status condition that'd make it easier to catch and then wait patiently for the hail to weaken it.

@BlueDoppler: So during the first turn, she just paralyzed it, and then the plan was to just keep switching out until it was close to the red.

@BlueDoppler: But that's when things got insane. Because it was the wild Absol's turn.

@CoolSkeleton03: Ok now you have to tell us xD

@WinDows Gulim: A shiny absol? Now I don't think you told me that one but it HAD to be gold :')

@BlueDoppler: Right on the first turn, the wild Absol uses Pursuit. There's not much effect.

@BlueDoppler: The hail hurts both Pokemon on the field.

@BlueDoppler: Dawn decides to switch out.

@BlueDoppler: The wild Absol uses Pursuit again. The switch occurs.

@BlueDoppler: And then that's when the festival begins.

@BlueDoppler: Rain continues to fall. The sandstorm rages. The sunlight is strong. Hail falls too.

@BlueDoppler: Each Pokemon is somehow hurt EVERY TIME by their ABILITIES.

@BlueDoppler: Both Pokemon faint.

@BlueDoppler: The end.

@Yoshua: but

@Yoshua: how did she

@WinDows Gulim: That was even better than I expected x'D

@Yoshua: what the fuck???

@KangarooBrush: ...

@KangarooBrush: Oh my.

* **Yoshua** needs to reboot her brain.

@CoolSkeleton03: Press f to pay respects to the kamikaze shiny absol

@Yoshua: f

@BlueDoppler: Later on I heard about that "acid rain glitch", but wherever I looked people were adamant that the glitch was only supposed to activate when it was the PLAYER who used the Pursuit move, so if it was the wild Pokemon then it wasn't supposed to happen.

@BlueDoppler: (f yes you should've seen our faces back then OOF xD)

@BlueDoppler: ... Besides, the damage wasn't supposed to be that strong, at least not nearly strong enough to get an OHKO out of both Pokemon in just one turn.

@BlueDoppler: So, my conclusion is, "???"

@CoolSkeleton03: F

@WinDows Gulim: ... f

@WinDows Gulim: I think I heard about it a few years ago, yeah. Apparently it affected the HGSS games too. But it's true that this case looks weird... I wish I could look into it more.

@KangarooBrush: f

@WinDows Gulim: Then again, what ELSE is new with all the experiments you led that involved Dawn and video games being in the same room? [Fake Smile Burgerpants Emoji]

@BlueDoppler: I know, right? XD

@BlueDoppler: Anyway, I won't tell every single story separately, but long story short, Dawn has a record of LITERALLY breaking every single videogame she comes across, and nobody knows how she does it, ESPECIALLY NOT HERSELF.

@KangarooBrush: This is concerning... but hilariously fascinating x'D

@BlueDoppler: The most common way she does it is that she activates glitches in the game that nobody knew about, or ones that are known to be insanely hard to accomplish... And still somehow she manages to do that completely by accident half the time xD

* Yoshua has uploaded an image. [14:21:52]

@Yoshua:

@Yoshua: sorry i had to

@BlueDoppler: ...

@CoolSkeleton03: Haha oh shit this is too powerful

@KangarooBrush: oh boy :'D

@BlueDoppler: Joss this is somehow perfect and yet I still hate you

@BlueDoppler: But this is still perfect

@WinDows Gulim: Welp, I can't believe I didn't see THAT one coming. Congrats on doing it so fast Joss :')

@WinDows Gulim: Your drawing skills are actually getting pretty good now o:

@Yoshua: Haha, tanks xD Guess it's just years of experience in shitposting 8D

@BlueDoppler: Anyway... Back to the point, if you allow me :p

@BlueDoppler: NOW, do you have ANY IDEA what could happen if we tried this with UNDERTALE? [Insane Omega Flowey Emoji]

@Yoshua: ... Oh my God she's so screwed.

@BlueDoppler: I tried to warn you ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

@BlueDoppler: Then again, ok, I still have to admit she's been improving. I recently tried to train her with some random rhythm game, because who's Dawn without her passion and amazing skills in music, RIGHT?

@BlueDoppler: And uh. After a week she managed to actually finish the first level?

@BlueDoppler: Hey, at least she even taught me something in the end.

@BlueDoppler: On that day I learned that the rank "G" somehow EXISTS on that game???

@WinDows Gulim: Oooh right, that one x'D

@WinDows Gulim: The infamous "Backwards Secret Rank for Goobers" 8D

@Yoshua: PFFFFFT XD

@Yoshua: Who wants to bet she'll get that glitch where Sans walks out of the screen? x) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVyhRfDXGxQ>

@Yoshua: Still, it's too bad... I wish we could see her progress ._.

* Jerry. is now online [14:26:19]

@KangarooBrush: Oh, hello!

@Jerry.: Hi folks! What's up?

@WinDows Gulim: You won't believe what happened.

@WinDows Gulim: Dawn is playing Undertale!

@Jerry.: ...

@Jerry.: DUDE. YOU"RE NOT SERIOUS.

@BlueDoppler: THIS IS 100% SERIOUS

@BlueDoppler: ... Well we don't get to see her play for now, but I'm sure she'll have some stuff to say later :p

@Jerry.: Ugh... I wish I could've been the one, I was working on a plan to make her play too!

@Jerry.: Oh well. Who's the lucky winner?

@BlueDoppler: This girl right here [Proud Papyrus Emoji]

@BlueDoppler: What was the prize again? I think we talked about a special rank at some point

@BlueDoppler: Oh and you all owe me a UT gift for the ConnectiCon meeting. I want my merch =)

@Jerry.: There, done

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: Oh, you mean the rank?

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: ...

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: DANG IT LEE

@Jerry.: [Omega Flowey Troll Emoji]

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: HOW DID YOU EVEN MANAGE TO MAKE AN ABSOLUTE GOD OF HYPERDEATH RANK XD

@WinDows Gulim: Pfft, nice one xD

@KangarooBrush: Oh come on x)

@Jerry.: x)

@Jerry.: Wait Steven

@Jerry.: You're STILL online? It's like 7:28 pm here, doesn't that mean it's literally the middle of the night for you?

@Jerry.: I swear you're online more and more often at the US time now

@Jerry.: Doesn't that mean you're online at very weird hours for the Australian time?

@WinDows Gulim: Ehhh, it's just a habit of getting up early and going to bed even earlier by now x)

@CoolSkeleton03: What time is it in australia rn?

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: 4:29 am

@WinDows Gulim: 4:29

@WinDows Gulim: wait what

@Yoshua: HAHAHA GOOD JORB LYS

@CoolSkeleton03: Wait a sec how did you know the answer so fast? You're not from australia too, are you? :o

@Yoshua: of course not Artie!! xD

@Yoshua: you kno Dawn and Lys live in Peensylvania

@Yoshua: (wait am i typin it right???)

@Jerry.: It's "Pennsylvania." And John, did you steal your sister's phone again? :p

@Yoshua: nah not dis time

@Yoshua: but with only 1 comp at home how do u want us to b online at the same time if she takes over the home pc

@Jerry.: Haha, good point x)

@Yoshua: Joss is in the bathroom rn so i dont think shed care if i take her place for a bit lol

@CoolSkeleton03: Seriously i'm still confused how did you do that Lys? You answered in like 5s top???

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: I just have very good reflexes :p

@Yoshua: haha ye SURE

@Yoshua: i bet it has somethin to do with the 2nd watch u wear on ur RIGHT wrist ;) ;) ;)

@WinDows Gulim: ... You wear two watches Lys? ._.

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: SHUT UP WHO CARES ABOUT MY FASHION SENSE

@Yoshua: aw it has nuthin to do with fashion hun ;p

@Yoshua: everybody knos what u 2 shoud do except urselves u dorks

@Jerry.: (shit it's already time for my evening shift)

@Jerry.: see you guys later!

* Jerry. is now offline [14:30:59]

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: John don't you dare

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: ... WAIT LEE AM I GOING TO KEEP THAT RANK FOREVER NOW IS THAT A REAL THING???

@Yoshua: ❤️ * Flirt

* Yoshua was kicked by [BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr [14:31:28]

@WinDows Gulim: Whoa hey, calm down Lys :')

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: Come on, he deserved it xD

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: ... But yeah, sorry, I guess I AM getting a little tense rn. I'm still thinking about Dawn.

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: It's been more than half an hour by now, right? What IS she doing???

* Yoshua is now online [14:32:49]

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: oh wait I just noticed her brother sent me a text... that's weird

@Yoshua: Hey yall I'm back

@Yoshua: And don't worry Lys, John got some noogies in revenge :p

@Yoshua: It's weird yeah, I sent Dawn some texts but she doesn't answer them either...

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: SHIT WHAT THE HELL

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: gotta go

@Yoshua: ????????????

@Yoshua: Lyyyyys?

@Yoshua: What did I miss? D:

* [BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr is now offline [14:33:13]

@Yoshua: uuuuuuuh thanks for explaining what's going on???

@WinDows Gulim: Uh oh, this looks serious...

@Yoshua: Steven, she probably sent you a PM about it, right?

@WinDows Gulim: Nope :/

* WinDows Gulim is now offline [14:33:58]

* Calliope Quill is now online [14:34:04]

@Yoshua: BWAHAHA OH NOW I SEE WHAT IT IS XD

@Yoshua: CALLIOPE NOW LYS HATES YOU SO MUCH SHE CAN SENSE WHEN YOU"RE ABOUT TO ARRIVE LMAO

@Calliope Quill: ... Can somebody explain what really happened?

@Yoshua: Nobody knows but your timing was perfect XD

@Calliope Quill: Why does Doppler have...? Actually, I'm not even going to ask.

@KangarooBrush: That's her prize for winning the Plup Game x)

@Calliope Quill: ... In any case. I finished the newest chapter of The Last Monster in time, you can now read it on the forum if you're interested.

@KangarooBrush: Nice! I'll try to read it tonight whenever I can. But for now I'll have to leave too... ^^'

* KangarooBrush is now offline [14:41:03]

@CoolSkeleton03: Sorry Isabel, I still have to read the last three first haha

@CoolSkeleton03: Your chapters are so long it takes a while to read them...

—— blueberry11 has just fallen into this chat! ——

You're new to Temmie Village Forum's main server, aren'tcha? You must be so confused. The #rules channel will teach you how things work around here!

* blueberry11 is now online [14:41:29]

@blueberry11: Hi everyone!!!

@CoolSkeleton03: Oh hi! I think I recognize the avatar... You're one of the TVF members from last month, right?

@CoolSkeleton03: Sorry every time there's a new patch on the game there's a huge wave of new members x)

@blueberry11: yee = ^ . ^ =

@blueberry11: oh i see you were talking about fanfics!!

@blueberry11: Which is great because i wanted to post my first ever fanfic on the forum today i'm so excited!!!

@Yoshua: Hey that's great! You probably must've heard of our Official Fanfic Reviewer, haha

@Yoshua: ~~more like Official Fanfic Destroyer LMAO~~

@Yoshua: Come on Calliope, say hi to your new apprentice! [Winking Flowey Emoji]

@Calliope Quill: ...

@Calliope Quill: "Greetings."

@Yoshua: Aw, she's being shy 8D

@Yoshua: Looks like you'll make it out alive after all, heheheh

@blueberry11: uuuuuuuu?????? q-q

@Yoshua: Don't worry, I'm just joking with you. Noobies tend to scare her :p

@Calliope Quill: You do know I can also "kick" you whenever I want, Jocelyn.

@Yoshua: Psh, you really have to develop a sense of humor one of these days xD

@Yoshua: Remember that half the flavor text in the game is made of jokes and puns!!

@Yoshua: Chara loves puns and that's canon, whether you like it or not :p

@Calliope Quill: The Charator theory was never confirmed.

@Yoshua: DUH, between "99% canon due to the insane amount of evidence" or "explicitly Word-Of-God confirmed", you're practically the only one who still sees a difference :/

@Yoshua: ANYWAY! So, dear new padawan, what's your fanfic about? :p

@blueberry11: oh! Right!!!

@blueberry11: Uh I think I need some time before I can write a summary cause I don't wanna spoil!

@blueberry11: but in the meantime what's your favorite AU? ^ . ^

@Calliope Quill: ...

* Calliope Quill was kicked by Calliope Quill [14:47:58]

@Yoshua: ... Ooooooooh boy XD

@Yoshua: Wait just a bit, I'll get her back :') Don't worry, it's not your fault, you didn't know XD

* WinDows Gulim is now online [14:48:05]

@blueberry11: ???? oki???? :(

@WinDows Gulim: Well Lys isn't answering my PMs for now, so...

@WinDows Gulim: Hi there! It's your first time on the server I think, right?

@blueberry11: ye

@blueberry11: but what's wrong with calliope quilil did i say something wrong???

@WinDows Gulim: Just don't worry about it, it's nothing against you personally x)

@Yoshua: She'll come back in a few seconds no worries :p

* Calliope Quill is now online [14:49:59]

@Yoshua: Come on now, Calliope. Just like we practiced =)

@Calliope Quill: ...

@Calliope Quill: Which "AU" is your fanfiction about?

* CoolSkeleton03 is now offline [14:50:43] and left the message: "Sorry dudes it's LoL time!"

@blueberry11: Oh oh oh!!!

@blueberry11: It's an AU I created actually!!

@Yoshua: Oooh, even better!! :D

@blueberry11: ye!!! It's called UnderShwift ^ w ^

@Calliope Quill: You're enjoying this way too much, Jocelyn.

@Yoshua: I AM AND I WON'T HIDE IT THIS IS TOO GLORIOUS XD

* **Yoshua** is preparing a LOOOOOOOOOOOOT of popcorn. John came, too. They feel like they're about to have a GREAT time.

@Calliope Quill: ...

@Calliope Quill: First of all, "UnderShwift"? "Shwift" is not even a word.

@blueberry11: it's because it's a mix between Storyshift and UnderSwap... :(

@blueberry11: but then Sans has to travel through AUs because of the Resets and he's trying to find a solution and he asks help to other AUs but he doesn't realize that by doing that he's enraged Error Sans and now his AU is in danger!!!

* **Yoshua** would PAY to get a picture of Calliope's face rn lmao

* Yoshua was kicked by Calliope Quill [14:54:14]

@blueberry11: ??? T-T

* Yoshua is now online [14:54:23]

@Calliope Quill: Alright. You're new here, and your description in the forum shows you're only eleven years old, so I'll give you the benefit of attributing this to an error of the youth.

@Calliope Quill: So, please listen very closely.

@blueberry11: uuuuuuh ok? ^ ^'

@Calliope Quill: As you may have noticed by now, I am pretty intolerant of "AUs", but there is a very rational and sound reason behind this behavior. The reason is, we all love Undertale!

@Calliope Quill: Why would people create entirely new universes that aren't original, but that completely abolish the meaning and depth of the canon characters as well?

@Calliope Quill: The only kind of "AUs" I would tolerate are the ones that find their source directly from the canon, but diverge from it only because of a "what if" scenario. And in Undertale, the only one I could think of right now is "What if Gaster's incident never occurred?", for example.

@Calliope Quill: But since we don't know anything whatsoever about Gaster or his incident's whereabouts anyway, such fanfiction could never come even close to canon, which makes it pointless and utterly ridiculous either way.

@Yoshua: Actually, that's the point in a fanfiction, right? x)

@Yoshua: You create a story. Your own personal story. If it's not canon then it just makes it more personal and more related to you!

@Yoshua: And no matter how hard you try Calliope, your fanfics are never going to be canon either

@Yoshua: So it's literally the pot calling the kettle black [Omega Flowey Troll Emoji]

@Calliope Quill: Maybe, but you don't need to recreate the whole universe just for that! Why do you see yourself as an Undertale fan if what you're writing has nothing to do with the original?

* [BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr is now online [14:57:39]

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: she's nOT AT HOME

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: SHE"S NOT AT HOME

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: ... FUCK

@WinDows Gulim: Wrong chat, Lys

@Yoshua: Wait what?

@Yoshua: What do you mean are you talking about Dawn?!

@blueberry11: ?????????? WHO?????????

@WinDows Gulim: Ok on a scale from one to ten how serious is this?

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: SIXTY

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: STEVEN HER PARENTS CALLED THE POLICE

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: WHERE THE FUCK DID SHE GO

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: WHAT DO I DO

@Yoshua: Whoa Lys calm down!! o_o

@WinDows Gulim: Joss is right, you need to stop panicking D:

@WinDows Gulim: I can't do much from where I am, but how's the situation? She just LEFT?

@blueberry11: O_________________O

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: I don't know! She's just GONE

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: When I saw her room her PC was just open on her desk with Undertale on it!

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: Her chair and some stuff around were on the floor, but THAT'S. IT!

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: Charlie said he heard weird noises at some point but nobody saw her leave the room!

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: She didn't jump out the window, did she?!

@blueberry11: what is happening?????????

* blueberry11 was banned by Calliope Quill for a duration of: 30 min [14:59:01]

@Yoshua: Isabel what the heck?!

@Calliope Quill: I apologize. I assumed we needed some privacy for this.

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: I hand't realized she was THAT angry!

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: I didn't think she'd take thaht so seriously

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: Oh my god buys is this my fault?

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: did i make a mistake by telling her to play?

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: THIS WAS JUST A GAME COME ON WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WHY DID SHE DO THAT?!

@Calliope Quill: Doppler, you need to stay focused.

@Calliope Quill: If this is so serious, we need to know what happened. When did you last hear from her?

@Calliope Quill: Do you know any places she could have gone to? Maybe we can find her fast enough.

@Calliope Quill: She left the chat less than an hour ago, she can't be too far.

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: What the FUCK Are you being serious right now?

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: THIS IS NOT ONE OF YOUR SLUSHY FANFICTION THRILLERS, QUILL!

@WinDows Gulim: Lys, calm down! I know you're tense but we'rejust trying to help!

@Calliope Quill: You DO know that both my father and Sally work in the Virginia State Police, right? Pennsylvania isn't our jurisdiction so they legally can't do anything for now, but I can always ask them for advice on how to handle the situation.

@[BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr: WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WANT TO LISTEN TO YOU WHEN DAWY COULD DE ANYWHETE RIGHT NOW

@Yoshua: Lys what the fuck??? o_o

* [BlueDoppler] bIgWiNnEr~pRoFeSsIoNaLpLuPpEr was banned by WinDows Gulim for a duration of: 24 h [15:00:35]

@Calliope Quill: Good thinking, Steven. Hopefully her timeout will let her cool down and think more rationally for the rest...

* Calliope Quill was banned by WinDows Gulim for a duration of: 24 h [15:00:57]

* WinDows Gulim is now offline [15:00:59]

@Yoshua: Oh God

* Yoshua is now offline [15:01:36]

* * *

——— This chatroom is empty ———

* * *

* Jerry. is now online [18:55:23]

@Jerry.: Hey guys! What did I miss? Did Dawn finish her first run?

@Jerry.: ... WHAT THE HELL STEVEN???

Read via Screenshots Here (full formatting but may encounter loading issues)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thiiiiis is the reason why I really advise people to read the PDF version if possible. I hesitated to do the same thing even with the regular chapters, but I think that THIS type of episode really is the main reason why I just couldn't stand HTMLing everything on AO3. It's hard enough to organize on the local files, so I really wouldn't want to do that a second time here, and yet another time for every single website where this story could possibly be published Dx  
> In any case, I'm really sorry for the phone users, but sadly there was no other way for me to find the proper format for this chapter, and I can tell already that this won't be the only time there'll be chat logs like these. They won't make entire chapters anymore, but they still might appear from time to time whenever they are relevant.  
>  **[EDIT]** AND now I see that AO3 is going to be literally the death of me and that it now deliberately wants me to suffer. What the heck is this scrolling thing??? I had no problem like this when it came to posting my GF comic so what is going on here??? o_o  
> Anyway I'm sorry everyone I'll try to find a way to correct this but seriously _w h a t_
> 
> Anyway. DANG did I wait for this chapter. I had it in mind aaaaaall the way back for the old version, but somehow it never made it there due to various reasons I guess. Anyway. NOW it's here, and now it's going to be HEKKA RELEVANT while also being sort of an interlude/bonus chapter compared to the main story :p I hope that wasn't too many characters all at once and that it was still easy enough to follow despite everything.
> 
>  **[EDIT]** Well, now I changed my mind and all the chapters are posted as screenshots, AND hopefully it should be readable both on computer and on mobile. It seems like the images are a bit too big on computers depending on what you're looking for, but if you change your browser to window mode and reduce the width, the images will become smaller, so you can adapt the size of the text however you want.


	7. Act 1, Scene 4.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took forever due to a number of reasons: because I started working on a lot of chapters that will come _much_ later in the story, because I had my finals, and because I spent two weeks working on a school project that involved me working at a lab with a team and spending eight hours per day running around and fixing stuff while talking with the professors and learning random anecdotes about their time as chemistry students.  
> Anyway with that being said, you'll probably understand where I pulled my inspiration from for this chapter :p
> 
> Also you may have noticed, but for the PDF files I changed the dimensions of the pages in order to make the reading experience easier, especially on mobile (for those who can read PDF files on mobile, at least). It might take some getting used to on computer, but it looks great on a phone and hopefully it's still enjoyable enough either way. AND, great news for those who can't read PDF files for one reason or another, the chapters are also available on tumblr now, as high-quality screenshots.

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 4.1

###  [» Read the PDF version here! «](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NbLKwCD-6QWxvwRfs7qN3VpLJ2lrsf4M/view)

###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/183705396917/act-i-scene-41)

* * *

This is the main index where you can choose which way you wish to read the chapter.

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Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


 

* * *

“Sans.” Dawn grumbled, gritting her teeth. “I got the message. So now, could you _please_ stop singing?”

 

The last notes of _Megalovania_ turned to a dejected silence, if only for the few seconds the skeleton needed to turn towards her, shrug with a smug smile, and retort:

 

“what message? there’s no message. s’not my fault if it’s catchy, blame the guy who made the music.”

 

And the singing resumed, soon accompanied with a concert of sighs coming from both girls in the room.

 

“Sans, for the love of the Angel, please stop.” Alphys pleaded while rubbing her tired face. “I haven’t had my coffee yet. It’s way too early for memes.”

 

“pft. weaklings.” He snorted mockingly, walking casually towards the coffeemaker and flipping a switch. “here ya go. will be ready in a minute.”

 

He quietly made his way back to the kitchen table and took a seat beside the human teenager, watching her with amusement as she was staring angrily at her phone and tediously undoing all the damage he had caused. The monster smirked internally when he realized that she had still to notice more than _half_ of the jokes he had in store.

When silence fell in the room (except for the awkward purrs of the coffee machine), Sans started to utter an excuse so he could sing some more, but he was instantly cut short when Alphys asked Dawn to play some music on her phone, to which she instantly agreed. After a few more minutes of arguing, the trio reached the compromise that her phone could play some of its tracks as background music, as long as all Sans-related songs were automatically banned from the list.

Well, more precisely, this agreement was reached by the two girls, who won by default due to the rules of democracy. Disappointment was very evident on Sans’s skull, but all at the same time he probably was internally relieved that he would not have to worry about potential existential crises or of seeing or hearing things that would remind him of…

 

He needed to see Alphys’s reaction to understand what exactly the song that was currently playing, _Fishy Love_ , was all about. But when he did, his response was immediate.

 

“oh _come on_. why does SHE get to watch stuff about her, and not me?”

 

“Sans, no offense, but contrary to you, I’m not the literal embodiment of meme.” Alphys sighed, shaking her head pseudo-solemnly.

 

“Not to mention, your meme potential is increased exponentially in my world. So, trust me, this is also for the sake of your own mental health.” Dawn added sheepishly, but with a half-grin distorted by a mixture between pity and mockery.

 

“you _do_ know i’ve already seen half of it, right?” the skeleton deadpanned.

 

“Well, then you don’t need to see it again, do you?” Alphys smirked trollesquely.

 

Dawn and Alphys shared a synchronized snort and laughs, then high-fived.

Well, considering the fact that Alphys only has four fingers, the terminology could be up for debate. But you get the idea.

The white rectangular phone was magically snatched from Dawn’s hands by something that had come and then vanished so quickly, she hardly had time to see anything but a swift white blur, and after the few seconds she needed to get over the shock, she raised her eyes and saw that the skeleton now had it in his hands, despite the fact that he had not moved the slightest from his seat on the other side of the table.

Then again, he quickly frowned angrily while staring at the screen, as he had turned it on only to be greeted by some sort of grid puzzle preventing him from doing anything else.

 

“… huh. that’s new.” he grumbled dejectedly.

 

The teenager smugly stood up from her seat and walked towards him, then stopped in front of him and raised an open hand that politely invited him to give her back her electronical property.

 

“This is what we commonly call a _password_ , Sans. It’s meant to stop nosy people like you from messing with my files again. So, I’m sorry to announce this, but your little snooping around is over.”

 

The expression Sans returned her was only that of a non-impressed skeleton troll who had just been challenged. His glowing pupils radiated the Smug and seemed to murmur: _“ you’re underestimating me big time, bud. you’re gonna regret it.”_ His stuck-on smirk slowly expanded menacingly.

 

“you’re on.”

 

“Yeah, right. Good luck.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I still have to clean up a lot of stuff on it, so I’d like it if you could give it back, now.”

 

He hesitated, but eventually sighed in defeat and gave in, letting her take back her little piece of technology in peace. If he could pout, she was _certain_ that it was the expression he would have shown on his skull.

 

“whoa hey. i see what you’re doin here.” he uttered in frustration when he immediately saw her looking for a new image to replace her wallpaper. “you’re not gonna put the _old_ one again, are you?”

Alphys snorted. “Aw, what’s wrong with pics of baby bones being cuddled by the King? You shouldn’t be jealous, you were MUCH cuter than that when you were born.”

 

Sans was about to say something, but the embarrassment was now obvious on his skull, and he was interrupted anyway when Dawn apparently choked on air and then had some sort of mixture between a coughing fit and hysteric laughter.

 

“Wait, you…” The human pointed shakily the lizard scientist, then the skeleton standing right next to her. “Y- _you_. Saw _him_. As a _baby_?” she asked in disbelief as soon as she could somewhat control her giggles.

 

“I know it doesn’t show, but I’m twelve years older than him, actually.” the lizard answered proudly while playing with her nonexistent eyebrows. “And have I SEEN him? I BABYSAT these brothers, girl. We’re family.”

 

The human gasped overdramatically, a huge dorky grin on her face. “No. Way. So you have… babysitting stories or something?”

 

Alphys’s demonic smirk was slicing her entire muzzle. “You have NO idea.”

 

“Al.  D o n ’ t .”

 

When she turned her head back towards Sans, finally realizing just how silent he had been until that moment, Dawn was not sure what to expect. In any case, there were two very obvious observations she could make instantly:

 

First of all, somehow, it was indeed possible for skeletons to blush. Papyrus had proven it in the game, but still, there was a huge difference between seeing it on a pixelated sprite, and seeing it on a realistic monster made of bones.

 

And second, the fans’ headcanon that Sans would blush cyan or blue was wrong. It was the regular color for a blush, and the exact same color as any monster blushing in the game, that was to say, the most saturated red you could imagine. Also, the blush was not just a color on his bones, it was actually faintly glowing. His skull almost looked like one of those lightbulbs in a Christmas decoration right now. If not as adorable as it would have looked in a fanart, it was at the very least _hilarious_ to watch live on the real guy.

 

“Whatever you say, Rudolf.” Dawn smirked playfully, trying her best not to give in to laughter but quickly enough failing miserably.

 

She realized after a split second that it was very likely that neither Alphys nor Sans would catch on the reference, but it was too late, and when her brain made the mistake of associating the concepts ‘blushing Sans’ and ‘Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, the mental image of a glowing Sans in a reindeer costume was enough to make her howl in laughter and bury her head in her hands as embarrassed tears began to appear in the corner of her eyes.

Too late. The image is here now, and it will _never_ go away.

The two monsters watched her in surprise and confusion, but she could not see them and she certainly was not currently in the physical capability of explaining anyone anything. When the coffee was ready and the human finally managed to calm down, her messy hair and reddened face made her look at least just as ridiculous as the initial subject of her hilarity.

 

“Seriously though, I really need to find a better wallpaper. Hmm.”

 

She wiped the wetness off her eyes and tried to arrange her hair a bit, but sadly, it appeared that sleeping in a sofa along with an electricity-based lizard monster was _not_ a good idea if you wanted to be photogenic on the next day.

 

“Well, that’s about as good as it’s ever gonna be.” she mumbled in defeat, pouting. She sent a sheepish grin at Alphys, and raised her phone: “Selfie?”

 

The scientist snorted and shook her head jokingly, but she accepted and stood up to join her, posing with a small smile and the classic V sign. Dawn just went for the widest, dorkiest grin she could make. Sans turned around with the coffee pot in his hand just in time for the camera to catch his confused expression in the frame.

When the two girls looked at the result, they unanimously agreed that it looked terrible. Sans asked them to delete it. These were the two reasons why they spent the next ten minutes sitting one next to the other and discussing which filters to apply so they could make Dawn’s soon-to-be lock screen wallpaper look even worse. Sans soon gave up and seemed resigned that he now had to accept the cruelty of the world. Until he figured out her password, that was.

 

“Anyway… What’s the plan?” Dawn eventually asked.

 

“for now, breakfast.” Sans shrugged distractedly. Apparently, it was not time yet to talk about serious stuff, huh. He opened the microwave and pulled out a fuming plate before offering it to her. “bacon?”

 

The human stared at the plate for three solid seconds, blinking in surprise. She took some of it, but her shocked expression remained until he jokingly asked her what was wrong with it.

 

“Nah, I’m not gonna ask how the heck you can make magic food bacon.” She pouted in confusion and shook her head… But soon she gave in. “… Okay quick question: do you have magic pigs? Shouldn’t magic pigs turn to dust when they die? How does that even work? Are we eating monster dust?”

 

Both monsters stared at her blankly for about a dozen seconds. Then Sans burst out laughing loudly and tried to make incoherent babbling mockeries until he looked like he had trouble breathing. Dawn’s expression turned into a deeply offended and flustered one.

 

“What? It’s a legitimate question!”

 

“Well, it’s not actual meat.” Alphys simply answered. “Originally, our food came from some species of magic plants and beings… But we only have vegan food now, since very few of these creatures were trapped underground with us, so we’ve only been able to grow magic crops. So… all other types of food are actually inspired from human meals and manufactured.”

“You mean they’re GMO?” She raised an eyebrow.

 

“… I have no idea what that means.” Alphys admitted after a few more seconds of blank stares.

 

Dawn returned her surprised look, but then she started wondering if monsters had DNA at all, or even, maybe, just about _any_ kind of biological system that had anything in common with the biology she was familiar with (which she admittedly did not know much about to begin with).

In any case, if their bodies’ biology did not rely on that sort of genetic language or whatever, there was no question as to whether or not they knew how to alter it, or why they would bother doing it in the first place.

 

Alphys eventually sighed as she took some slices herself and filled her plate. “Look, it’s just as safe as any other types of food. It just looks and takes like bacon.”

 

Maybe she had read the teenager’s expression as if she had been wary of the food she had been given. Oh well. It wasn’t like she’d ever fear that any of these guys would poison her food or anything. She was just curious.

Because heck. Food that’s literally made out of magic.

How awesome is that.

 

… That did _not_ taste like bacon.

She stared in disbelief at what was standing at the end of her fork. That _looked_ like bacon, true.

It didn’t taste bad, it _might_ have some kind of taste that may have felt like some sort of meat, but that was _not_ bacon. But it sure as heck looked like it. Weiiiiiiird.

 

Well, as she reasoned, the monsters had been trapped underground for whatever how long that made, maybe centuries or something, and in the meantime they only had the Garbage dump and human movies and anime as a reference for what was going on outside. They had the images and sounds, but nothing else. So… She couldn’t exactly blame them for getting some tastes wrong, since they literally had no outside reference.

 

Still. She really couldn’t have even _five minutes_ without getting something weird, could she…? It was a lot of fun, but she kinda would have liked having a break every now and then. She was enjoying all the new stuff, she was curious, she wanted to respect the change in culture and be a good guest and all that, but… Welp. Breakfast, please. She was just asking for _five_ minutes of tranquility and normality. Was that too much to ask?

She decided that she could just as well start a conversation that would be actually useful. Maybe that would distract her from the not-so-mundane mundanities from this world.

 

“So… I was just wondering. How many people know about the situation, exactly? I probably should’ve asked earlier, but…”

 

“just us three.” Sans replied immediately.

 

“Everyone knows Sans is working here.” Alphys completed. “They know that the plan is basically to g-go back in time before the last human arrived, and stop their rampage. But we didn’t tell anyone else about the video game, or the time loops…”

 

“and we didn’t tell anyone about _you_.” he added sharply, his stuck-on smirk looking for the first time strained and nervous. “so, uh, i didn’t think it was necessary to tell ya this before, but yeah, you’re in hiding right now. it’s likely that if anyone sees there’s a human here, they’ll wanna kill you on sight, and i’m not sure i could convince that many people not to. some would probably be cool with it, but we just don’t know that for sure, y’know? so… just don’t do anythin stupid while you’re here.”

 

“Yeah…” She nodded tensely, looking down gloomily and guiltily. “I wasn’t planning to anyway, but… yeah.”

 

He quickly reassured her that it shouldn’t be too hard for her to stay unnoticed given the fact that everyone else was currently living on the other side of the cavern; but still, the thought that she was basically an outlaw was… saddening. She wished the other monsters didn’t have to live in suffering and fear until they were done with Sans’s time machine and launched the Last Reset, but…

Well, some things just could not be solved so easily. Maybe she had to accept the reality that she was, after all, just a teen who had been invited in a world that wasn’t hers and that despite everything, there were limitations to what she had control upon. Maybe she had to find a cure to the protagonist syndrome that was trying to make its way up in her head. She _was_ special in this world due to being a Special Human or whatever, but Sans had a plan, and the plan did not require her to do anything particularly heroic; on the contrary, acting like Frisk and being all Determined to Save Everyone or whatever was probably one of the most efficient ways to completely jeopardize his plan.

 

So her role was simple: she had to stay put, and maybe help however she could with what was happening inside the house. Not outside of it.

 

She hoped she could be at least _somewhat_ useful once in the basement. That was the least she could do.

* * *

“so here we were, all sittin ‘round the spectra results and tryin to make some sense outta them. i think by that point he’d asked for help from practically _everyone_ in the lab, and nobody could figure out how he could’ve got these results. y’could hear theories from the technicians and the pros, like how the problem could’ve come from the pump, or someone forgot to calibrate the sensors, or the sample was too old, we even got that lunatic sayin it was evidence of that eighth type of magic he’d been talkin about for a decade or whatever.”

 

Sans had started telling some sort of college story that Dawn had a hard time following. It was something about a machine malfunctioning during his practical exercises in the middle of his finals, maybe… Well, seeing him so chatty and happy was all she really needed to be reassured about how he felt in general, but she would have preferred being able to at least understand what he was talking about.

 

“and then you know what? turned out the prof’d just forgott’n to plug the destabilizer in. ‘f course he used that _‘i was seeing if you were listening’_ bullshit and put the ones who were laughing on dishwashing duty. anyway, that’s how i got a d in chromatography and realized that magic color theory was boring as hell.”

 

The atmosphere in Sans’s basement was… interesting, to say the least. They were working and each giving their all, and they were gladly helping each other out whenever some assistance was required.

 

Unsurprisingly, Dawn was most of the time staying on the sidelines and mostly watching the two monster scientists, waiting patiently for one of them to ask for her help on something that would keep her busy for the next few minutes because it would happen to be a step that would require her to hold something firmly so the other one could focus on a precise task or something of the like — so either way, she was either waiting in a corner, or waiting by holding something still or carrying stuff around in the basement so the two others could focus on their tasks at hand. Still, she was docile and had pretty much expected this outcome, and she was happy to be of help without being too much of a nuisance or taking too much space when her help was not required.

She _was_ bored, but then again, she was good at waiting when she knew for a fact that it was the wisest thing to do.

All in all, everything was going smoothly…

 

“hey intern, i need the qm recalibratin tangler.”

 

Alphys rolled her eyes, sighing with little conviction. “She’s not an intern, Sans.”

 

… So smoothly, it appeared that they felt the need to spice things up themselves by finding various and unnecessary ways to create some playful, ironic bickering.

 

“is she a professional technician? does she have any experience whatsoever in entanglement physics or does she have any idea what she’s doing?”

 

The skeleton’s grin was definitely the one of a troll who wanted nothing but to playfully mess with the people around him even if they were his friends, because of no other motive but pure boredom. Seeing the lack of verbal answer from both girls, he shrugged trollesquely.

 

“so she’s an intern. also, where’s that tangler at?”

 

Dawn sighed. “I _would_ give it to you, but… The heck is _that_ supposed to be? I don’t even have a clue what it’s supposed to _look_ like.”

 

Alphys rummaged through her box for a few seconds, then pulled out a small tool that she held in victory. “Oh, here it is.”

 

The human blinked. “That… looks like a screwdriver. Why don’t you just call it a screwdriver?”

 

“why don’t you call a toaster an ‘oven’?”

 

“Duh. ‘Cause it makes toast.”

 

“then ya got your answer. damn are interns dumb. what do they teach ya kids in schools nowadays.”

 

Dawn sent him a death glare, muttering with spite: “… I’ll just keep calling it a screwdriver.”

 

Sans had started it, without surprise, but Alphys and Dawn were quick to find their own ways to chat or verbally prank him in return. As long as this did not affect the quality of their work, the casual banter and jokes were perfectly welcome and actually helped lift everyone’s spirits.

 

When the human teenager gave Sans this ~~screwdriver~~ odd magic tool, the one thing she had definitely not expected when watching him use it led her to ponder a few more issues regarding her current situation; she did not have that many better things to do, anyway.

 

The skeleton pretended not to see her watching, or at least not to be bothered by it; as he brought his seat closer to his desk and adjusted a magnifying lens so it could focus on a certain part of the circuitry he was about to work on, he hovered his tool closer and, in a second, small flashes of white emerged then vanished all around his hands.

It took a few dozen seconds of mesmerized inspection before she could finally confirm that those little ghastly, somewhat solid white lights that were flying around at high speed and carving patterns in the metal board as easily as if it were butter, were actually magic bullets.

 

This observation led to a long list of unspoken questions.

 

She wondered whether these bullets were created and directed through that whatever-it-was-called tool thing, or if Sans was making them himself.

Seeing how he was making some motions with his tool that did not seem to be in relation with the movements the bullets were following, it appeared that Sans really was the one creating and controlling them all by himself; she tried to give a closer look at those bullets in order to see if they could be just _really tiny_ bones, but they were less than half an inch long and they were moving way too fast for her to see anything more than just a blur of light.

 

Seeing magic bullets had first frightened her on instinct, and just like during that moment the previous night when Alphys had lost her cool, she wondered how they could appear outside of battle. Then again, she remembered that Undyne could totally summon as many magic spears as she wanted while in the overworld, and effectively use them for things other than mere battle: although that was a _very questionable choice_ , she _was_ able to use one to stir dry pasta in a pan. So, maybe no FIGHT was initiated as long as these bullets were left alone to do what the monster who summoned them wanted them to do…?

 

She wondered if the entire world would turn monochrome whenever a FIGHT was initiated, the same way it was represented both in the game and in some fanarts and animations, and part of her was tempted to trigger one just to satisfy this curiosity… But, nah, that wasn’t worth the risk and waste of time this would be to do something so stupid. Curiosity was a very strong motivator, but hardly ever a worthy motivation by itself.

 

Also, she soon remembered that during Undyne’s date, Frisk could hold her spear however they wanted, and no FIGHT was triggered as long as Undyne was the one who initiated the idea; so maybe the intent was also required in order to start the FIGHT, if it weren’t the _only_ trigger instead of the contact with the bullet…?

 

That was probably up for debate. Maybe she would ask Sans or Alphys later, at a time when they wouldn’t be so focused on their advanced magic-y science stuff.

 

Another question that immediately went over her mind was: _“Aren’t bullets only meant for fighting?”_

Could it be that monsters were actually using bullets, or maybe their magic in general, for much more mundane usages than just the occasional FIGHT? Her mind was conflicted between the part that was thinking that, since they had these magic powers, obviously they would want to use them whenever they felt like it due to how useful it could be; and the part that was trying to make some sense out of _Undertale_ ’s gameplay and just how it was impacting these monsters’ mundane life.

 

Not once since she arrived did she notice anything that would undeniably prove to her that she was inside a video game, apart from the fact that _duh_ , she was surrounded by the game’s characters and the landscapes of the game’s Underground, and even though Sans and Alphys looked incredibly realistic, the fact that the game was controlling this world was all she really needed to remember that this world’s rules of physics were different than hers.

 

She had never seen any floating buttons giving her options she could make, there were no dialogue boxes, and she had never seen any ‘screen mode’ other than the classic overworld one; but maybe Sans and Alphys had just made sure that she would stay away from gameplay elements as much as possible for her own safety… or for theirs, too, maybe. Maybe they weren’t trusting her _completely_ yet, especially if she was supposed to be a ‘Player’ and _could_ have more options than they did, or something like that.

 

When she had asked him for details in the morning, Sans did tell her (reluctantly) that her SOUL was supposed to be about four times stronger than a regular human’s was. Adding that to the fact that she was most probably older than Frisk _and_ that, during this Run, a kid had been able to cause so much pain and destruction… She had no idea what kind of disaster _she_ could cause herself if she snapped, but she was very glad that _she_ , at least, trusted herself to have enough mental health to stay pacifistic all the way. Because _duh_. Who would be crazy enough to murder these guys _while_ being fully aware that they were sentient and asked for nothing but freedom and peace?

 

Seeing that _maybe_ her staring was in fact distracting Sans, she decided to slowly walk away and give him some space so he could keep working quietly; the gesture seemed to indeed let him relax a little bit. Was he anxious about her proximity to the bullets, maybe? Yeah, maybe she should have kept her distance since the start; his work looked like it was all about precision, but maybe controlling these bullets’ trajectories like this was harder when they were so small, and potentially sharp. She probably _should_ have realized sooner just how difficult this specific task was.

 

As soon as the small buzzing sound of the tiny bullets carving the board stopped, Sans pulled the lens away and he turned around with an expression that immediately revealed what he was about to do:

 

“welp. this is gettin a bit too quiet.” he affirmed in a resolute, joking sigh. “who’s for puttin on some more background music?”

 

“I veto all Undertale OST and fan songs.” Alphys retorted immediately, without even looking away from her work.

 

“Ditto.” the human added, just as quickly.

 

The two girls heard a muttered curse and they snickered in unison. There was no further opposition to their conditions, so soon Dawn started her playlist of random songs that had nothing to do with the game and that hopefully did not include too much meme material.

 

“you think you’re so clever, huh.” Sans grumbled humorously. “al, you done with your part of the motherboard?”

 

“Almost.” she confirmed while nodding.

“great. might be ‘bout time we started putting everythin together then, don’t ya think?”

 

Dawn realized that it was finally the time when Sans would remove that purplish blanket in the back of the room, which meant that it was finally the time when she would discover just what was beneath it. Just like that, the skeleton’s left hand grabbed one corner and after a swift pull, the whole fabric tumbled to the floor.

The teenager blinked in shock.

 

“Wait, what the…” Her eyes zigzagged horizontally for a few seconds. “There’s _two_ of them?”

 

“ _duh_.” He rolled his eyes overdramatically, grinning jokingly at her ignorance. “how else do you think i brought you here? i know my shortcuts are great, but don’t overestimate them. interdimensional travel’s still out of my reach without some help.”

 

“I… kinda just assumed that you used your time machine, to be honest.” she answered sheepishly.

 

The look in his eye-sockets seemed to tell that he wanted _so badly_ to start some scientific rant about how stupid it was to think that a _time_ machine could do some _space_ travel or something like this, but he quickly sighed and decided against it, instead muttering something among the lines of _“ ain’t that easy, bud. that’s not how it works.”_

 

“anyway, looks like we’ve got some time before al’s done with her part. somethin tells me you’d like some more explainin’ in the meantime. don’t you?”

 

“I, uh…” Dawn was soon reminded of all the theories regarding the potentially depressing implications behind this machine and what exactly it could have meant for him. Should she really go on and make him talk about what was _very likely_ to be some painful memories…? “I w-wouldn’t want to impose, but…”

 

“you’re curious about it.” He shrugged, closing his sockets and chuckling lazily. “ehh, it’s cool. i mean, i still owe you some answers after draggin’ you all this way, right?” He winked. “’sides, it’s actually nice that you seem interested in this stuff.”

 

“My best friend loves physics. Probably because of her dad.” she answered with an awkward smile. “So… I don’t understand a lot of it, but it’s hard not to be curious at _least_ a little when she’s so passionate about it all the time. Maybe her passion’s contagious or whatever. Also, I think she’s jealous that I’m better at math than _she_ is. Ha.”

 

“you’re good at math?” he raised a nonexistent eyebrow in surprise.

 

“It’s just that it’s her weak point and I’m not too bad.” she pouted, looking away. “Doesn’t mean I like it. Math is dumb and unimaginative.”

 

The monster snickered. “i disagree with that on a lot of levels, but that’s your opinion i guess.”

 

He stayed still next to her, as they both kept staring at the two machines standing side by side, now in silence. After a few more seconds, Sans invited her to look at the one on the left with a wide nod from his skull.

 

“that’s the one that brought you here.” he calmly explained while gesturing it with a lazy hand wave.

 

The gigantic monstrosity was much bigger than the other, towering them with almost ten-feet-tall, dark thick pipes, and long wires strangling an approximately human-sized cavity surrounded by what was likely to be the generator. She had guessed that inviting people into another (virtual?) reality would require a lot of energy and means… but still.

 

All she could see there was that he _really_ had put a _lot_ of effort into that project. Besides… She wondered how it could have possibly worked. She was certain that bringing actual matter inside a virtual reality was not supposed to be possible, so… Had he used that machine to somehow recreate a body to store her consciousness or something…? The more she thought about it, the more her parallel with _The Matrix_ seemed to be the explanation that made the most sense to her.

This also raised the question of what happened to her actual body back in her own world. Sans had assured her that she would be able to go back safe and sound as soon as he was done, but… How did that work? Was her real body in a coma or something? If she was meant to stay here for at least a few weeks, shouldn’t that be a problem for her health? Could it be that by now, her parents had sent her comatose body to a hospital or something…?

Yikes, that was a creepy thought. Part of her forcedly reminded herself that Sans had _promised_ that she would be fine. So, she had trouble understanding _how_ he would keep his promise, but she reasoned that she probably just wasn’t examining the situation under the right perspective, which would explain why she had missed some key details.

 

One of those key details could just as well be the answer to the following question: did time even work the same way in both worlds? In the plot of most of the fanfictions she knew about where the setting would be somewhat similar to her current situation, most of these stories ended with some sort of justification as to why nobody from the player’s world ever got to question or even notice anything: the fact that it had all been some sort of lucid dream overnight, the fact that somehow the entirety of the story had occurred in the span of just a few minutes at best due to some weird, faulty relativity physics…

 

Dawn used to think of this kind of plot conclusion as a cheap tactic or excuse that would allow the authors writing these stories not to involve anyone from the player’s world, but now…? She actually hoped that this cheap tactic would be what reality had in store for her, because she certainly did not want anyone to worry about her, and because she was _not_ ready to explain anyone what exactly would have happened to her in the meantime. Especially not if the police was to be involved. That would be awkward.

 

Maybe she would just literally find herself waking up in her bedroom, her slobbering face resting at a painful angle against the keyboard, now with imprints of keys and random letters on her forehead or something, and then realize that practically no time had passed at all since her kidnapping. That would be embarrassing, but that would also be the most convenient solution both regarding the problems of health and trauma from her family, and the one of finding a proper way to tell them what happened.

If hardly any time had passed for them, so much that they wouldn’t even have had the time to realize that she was gone, maybe there wouldn’t be anything to explain at all.

 

She didn’t have time to mentally gossip much further though, because Sans had already moved on with his explanations and was now entirely focused on the other block of steel and iron. It appeared that the machine was purring, as if it were already working; but soon he went to flip a few switches, and the noise stopped promptly as all the indicator lights turned off.

 

“as for this one… well, you know it already. that’s what we’re gonna work on today.” His wide smile was shining with hope. “it was fully functional, a long time ago. still kinda is. it got caught in an accident at some point, but we really just need to fix a few old bruises and then find a power source strong enough, and it’s good to go. it’s gonna take some time, but… well. if it weren’t for time jumpin back every now and then, i would’ve totally been able to fix it a while ago. it’s not like it’s gonna be _actually_ hard to do it now.”

 

She was certain that he was making it sound a lot easier than it would really be, but seeing how they had been working so far, she fully trusted him. She, personally, would certainly not be able to understand a lot of what they were going to do, but as a team, they would succeed. With both Sans and Alphys as the monster geniuses working on it at the same time, she knew that they had nothing to worry about.

 

Speaking of Alphys, she called out to them and let them know that she was done with her part of… whatever she had been doing. They weren’t really explaining much of what their work was for. Well, she couldn’t really blame them: at first they really had tried to tell her the basics, but the fact that they were working on something that was obviously some advanced science stuff even for monsters, _and_ that their technology seemed to include a lot of magic concepts that she was completely unfamiliar with, they soon gave up trying to explain her anything due to the waste of time it was likely to become. Apparently, since they were living in a world where the laws of physics were different, they _literally_ based their science and theories on different laws of physics, magic, or whatever she was supposed to call it. As if listening to human physicists talking about human science weren’t complicated enough.

 

While Dawn was pondering whether physics was supposed to be a multiversal science or not, Sans left her side to help the lizard scientist move the weird part of machinery she had been working on closer to the big time machine she was examining. She soon pulled herself out of her trance when she noticed their struggle and dashed to their rescue.

 

One thing she had been shocked to learn was the fact that monsters were incredibly weak physically — at least, Sans and Alphys were. They could work through life without much trouble, but apparently moving heavy stuff around was taking a lot more out of them than she would have expected: even if she considered herself to be far from physically built, she appeared to be a lot stronger than either of them, _arguably_ both of them together, even.

 

She attributed this to the fact that monsters’ bodies were physically much weaker than humans’ according to the game’s lore; but still, seeing this for herself was concerning. Could they actually injure themselves to a serious degree if they were to carry around something that was too heavy for them? Could such effort… _dust_ them?

One thing was clear, she did _not_ want to find out.

 

As soon as the part of machinery was carefully laid on the ground, the monsters thanked her like the previous times, and like the previous times she brushed it off, too worried about what could have happened to them if she hadn’t come to help. She theorized that in other facilities where they were constantly building stuff, they probably had some equipment to help them properly, and that it just so happened that Sans did not have that sort of equipment in his basement due to a number of guessable reasons.

 

The two monsters immediately went to open some panels and connect random colored wires between the original time machine and whatever Alphys had been working on. Sans soon brought the parts he had crafted earlier, and they connected one of them elsewhere on the same machine, probably as a replacement of sorts because he previously removed from the machine a board that looked similar to it, except that it was in pretty bad shape.

 

Eventually, he went to a certain part of the machine, opened another panel, and motioned her to come to his side. When she arrived and looked, she saw that inside the cavity in the machine stood a rather large, transparent can containing some strange liquid-looking… thing.

 

“that’s the dt battery system.” he said, answering her implied question.

 

“DT… As in ‘determination’?”

 

“yep. as far as we know, that’s the only thing that can let things or people remain unchanged through time jumps – i mean _resets_ ” (he seemed to have corrected himself reluctantly) “or even cause them.”

 

That machine was running on determination…? The more you know. Then again, time machine, in the _Undertale_ universe. Of course determination was the most obvious choice for the engine’s fuel or whatever.

 

Now that she was thinking about it, she realized that there really were only two functional machines in the room, one responsible for her presence here, and the other supposed to control time or whatever. But… What about Sans’s memory? She remembered that he had mentioned that he had… _“manually saved his memory”_ , or something like that. Which to her meant that he had probably used some sort of machine for that too, and seeing that Sans had actually shut down the time machine just a few minutes earlier… Could it be that this was what he was already using to save his memory as well? She theorized that in order for his machine to be able to save his memory throughout time, said machine needed to be present during each time loop as well. So, seeing that according to the game this was the only machine supposed to be here from the start… Maybe it wasn’t too far-fetched.

 

For once… She wanted to make sure. She still had a lot of questions, after all, and maybe thinking everything through all by herself was a bit stupid, when she could just _ask_ the guy that was standing right next to her and had all the answers she wanted.

 

“I just thought…” she started awkwardly, then bit her lip. “It’s just… Is this what you’re using to remember the timelines?”

 

The wide eye-sockets and bright glowing dots locked on her showed that, first of all, her deduction was most probably correct, and that, second, he definitely had _not_ expected her to be able to make that deduction.

 

“well… yeah. good job on guessin’ _that_.” He sighed. “you prolly know what happens if you mix monsters and determination—” (she flinched) “— yeah you see what i’m talkin’ about. so if the machine’s the one holding on to it… it can save anything for me.”

 

He looked uncomfortable. A dark part of her mind realized that since the machine was now turned off, and since it was supposed to save his _memory_ , it was one of the rare moments when Sans’s mind was vulnerable to potential Resets. _She_ was the one able to Reset if she wanted to, and _she_ had just found out his greatest weakness.

She gulped. Now more than ever, it was definitely not the time to screw up.

 

“I wasn’t supposed to know that, was I…” she winced, sending him an apologetic look, then sighed tensely. “I-it’s okay, I understand why you wouldn’t want me to find out. I’m sorry I…”

 

He chuckled awkwardly, shaking his skull. “n-nah, i… really just forgot to tell ya. i mean, never intended to _hide_ that or anythin, i would’ve told you if you asked, but there’s just…”

 

She clenched her teeth and fists in a mixture of feelings that she had trouble identifying. Was her patience faltering? She was not sure. The only thing she was sure about was: that was enough.

 

“Sans. Look.” He turned his anxious gaze towards her, and she returned him a pair of upset, yet determined eyes. “I know I’m… well. I’m _really_ curious, about a lot of stuff. I have a lot of questions. But… It’s okay if you want to have your secrets. I still don’t know _everything_ about you, and even if there are theories and stuff back in my world, and even if I _really_ want to ask you about it, it’s just… It’s not fair, you know? I just… know too much already.” She bit her lip again and looked to the side. “So… I’ll always be here if you _want_ to talk about some stuff or whatever, because maybe I know enough so I can understand how you feel or whatever, but… I only want you to talk about it if you _want_ to. Okay?”

 

There was a long pause. Those two white glowing pupils kept staring at her and slightly trembled, but soon they went to look back at the machine and his frozen smile expanded a bit, as it finally became a lot more relaxed and genuinely relieved.

 

“… thanks, kid. really means a lot comin’ from you.”

 

She tried to give him an honest, encouraging smile in return, although a little part of it was strained. Maybe she felt already that leaving him alone with his past would be harder than she made it sound, and she hated it. Being mature could be so hard and frustrating sometimes, but… This was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?

Even if it hurt, maybe she had to try to weight out which amount of pain would hurt more: her pain of knowing he was hiding things from her and that he didn’t trust her, or his pain of feeling intruded on, on what was likely to be already painful parts of his life? Even though she could not assess properly the second option due to not knowing the details of what it was all about, it still was easy to compare the two possibilities.

 

“So, um, I don’t want to ruin a moment, but is the container coming already…?”

 

Sans and Dawn were pulled out of their thoughts when Alphys awkwardly called out to them, reminding them of what they were supposed to do before they started chatting around.

 

“oh, right.” the skeleton chuckled. He pulled a small tool out of nowhere and quickly moved it around the glass can, untangling the few wires connected to it and removing the screws keeping it in place. “we need to bring it over. thing is, it’s a bit heavy, so…”

 

“No worries, I got it.” She grinned, then seized the container with both hands and swiftly, but carefully raised it from its original location. She winced a bit. “Oof— okay, it _is_ a bit heavier than I thought, but I’m fine. Where do you guys want me to put it?”

 

“Just here is fine, don’t worry.” the lizard scientist smiled, pointing the floor against a corner of the machine and by her side.

 

After smiling and nodding in understanding, the human secured the translucent can in her hands and squeezed it tightly against her chest… But that was when it happened.

 

Whatever happened, it happened fast. Dawn hardly had the time to turn around and start walking towards the designated destination, when a flash of light occurred. The human teenager cried in shock and pain, there was the sound of a heavy object falling, and before anyone could barely process that _something_ had happened, let alone comprehend _what_ had happened, the two dumbstruck monsters were facing a whimpering human lying on the floor and clutching her chest in pain, and a glass container rolling on the floor with a fracture that let its contents slowly ooze out and leave a growing trail of shifting drops.

 

Okay, now _that_ ’s new. What just happened?!

“shit!” Sans was the first to react, and judging by his vocabulary, he was probably not in the state of mind to think. “no-no-no-no-no…”

 

Surprisingly enough, instead of focusing on the container, he rushed towards the human and let Alphys take care of the leaking determination instead, as he carefully kept his distance with it and even backed away on instinct when he feared he might have accidentally stepped on some of it.

Dawn looked groggy and in pain, at best. He struggled to help her sit up and face him, but it did not seem to help at all as the cracks in her grimace only deepened in response. He carefully helped her lie back down and apologized.

 

She had trouble thinking. She had no idea what had happened, but she was certain she had let go off what she was supposed to hold on, and she heard panicked voices around her, and she remembered that what she was holding was some liquid determination or whatever, and she probably had messed up pretty badly by letting go off it, and she did not know what happened but there was _something_ and it _hurt_ …

Yet, somehow, suddenly, that _something_ in her chest felt something that wasn’t pain. It was not enough to soothe her and make her forget about the pain, but it helped a lot by making it at least a lot more bearable, and gradually she was able to regain at least some kind of control over her breathing and movements. Her eyes felt a bit wet. Had she been crying from the pain? When finally she opened her eyes if ever so slightly, the wetness made her vision blurry, but the first thing she saw was a skull looming over her. It was Sans, wasn’t it? But why did she feel like his pupils weren’t supposed to look so bright and colored…?

 

When Sans saw her eyes open, he did not wait any longer.

 

“dawn, can you hear me?” he hurriedly called out. There were suddenly three small flashes of white that flickered in panic just behind his shoulders. “how many bones do you see?”

 

Oh… So he had summoned a few bone bullets, huh. Some part of her wanted to feel threatened by the view of giant floating bones roaming right above her, but maybe she was too dazed to feel it. Maybe her brain was not able to trigger the right chemicals to raise any red flags, whether she logically should feel threatened or not.

Either way, she tried to strengthen her grip on reality as best she could, by focusing on the simple task that had been given to her. But… was it really that simple?

 

“Uuuuh…” She looked confused and unsure, thinking hard. “S-should I count you in it? I-i’m not sure h-how many b-bones there are in your body…”

 

Sans stared at her for a few seconds with a deadpan look. The bone-bullets vanished into thin air, then he released his grip on her arms and plunged his hands in his hoodie’s pockets, turning around towards Alphys.

 

“… well, she’s fine.” he grumbled, rolling his pupils.

 

Alphys was crouching over the drops of determination on the floor with the open container by her side, and she seemed to be using some form of magic in order to tentatively guide the liquid back into the container without touching it directly. Needless to say, it was a slow and rather ineffective process. Dawn wondered if Sans’s blue magic could have been more useful there, assuming that it worked the way she imagined it. Which… was probably false, because the game never really made it look that much like any sort of actual telekinesis. Or did it…? Ugh, she probably wasn’t in the capability of thinking about this sort of thing right now.

 

“Sans, this isn’t funny.” the lizard scolded. “Either you stay with her, or come and help me clean this up.”

 

“i know, geez.” He sighed, then bent back over the human’s head and his gaze was more intense and focused. “seriously, how’re you feeling?”

 

Dawn scrunched up her face in odd, confused expressions, as if she was not sure herself. Still, she soon muttered an unsure _“… Better?”_ as an attempt to reassure him. She frowned and tried to move around, so Sans carefully helped her sit up once more. This time, it appeared that it was not as painful as the previous attempt.

However, as she was sitting up and looked down so she could find support on the ground, her eyes met a diffused, wide cyan light radiating from her chest.

She looked up. Sans’s pupils glowed the same color.

She looked down again. She brought both hands over the light as if to try to shield it from view and her face blushed.

Was that her _SOUL_?

 

“it looks okay enough… i think.” he muttered tensely, apparently still worried. His glowing pupils moved to look at her in the eye, although they kept their current aspect. Eye contact with a pair of cyan rings was weird. “still. you got any idea what happened?”

 

She shook her head nervously. It felt light. “No, I have no idea…” She blinked and stared again at her chest, then gulped uncomfortably. “Can you, not, do that?”

 

The monster stared in confusion, then followed her eyes to look at the big cyan heart-shaped shadow she was ineffectively trying to hide with her hands. He blinked in realization, but did not seem that fazed by it.

 

“… oh. right.” He blinked again, and when his bony eyelids opened, his pupils were back to their original white color and regular shape. He grinned jokingly. “what, never seen your soul before?”

 

She merely shook her head tensely, pursing her lips. “It’s… big.” she grimaced.

 

“well, it’s bigger than the ones you’re supposed to see around here, that’s for sure.” he nodded and shrugged casually, still smiling. “four times stronger than the norm, remember?”

 

Alphys came over, as she was apparently done cleaning up what could be fixed of the incident and went to crouch down next to Sans. She whispered to him that she would _take it from here_ , and the human teenager felt reassured to see what she assumed to be the closest thing to a doctor among monsters. She was not sure whether anything severe really had happened, but the event had been shocking enough as it was, and now she needed answers.

 

“So… Something happened to my s-soul?” she asked immediately and fearfully.

 

Being hurt physically was one thing— especially if the body she had right now was not her real one, but rather a virtual recreation of it or whatever it was like in the movies. But… Now, receiving damage to her SOUL? She was not sure what the consequences really were. Maybe she would just be healed and her HP would go back to its maximum or something as easy as that. Or maybe it was actually serious. Sans and Alphys had looked panicked as if it were serious.

 

Hardly listening to her question, the lizard scientist merely answered _“ I’ll be the judge of that.”_, as she had already grabbed her shoulders and made her stand straight, staring directly at her chest without wasting time. When that weird feeling from a few minutes earlier came back to wrap itself around her chest and Dawn saw weird lights flickering around Alphys’s head, she understood that she was using her magic to stare at her SOUL again.

… Damn that was awkward. Was this something common among monsters? Did they just look at each other’s SOULs just like that whenever they felt like it? Maybe it would have been more polite if they _asked_ , at least, wouldn’t it?

 

Judging by the look on Alphys’s face as soon as she caught a glimpse of her SOUL, apparently she had never seen anything like it. She had studied Asgore’s six SOULs before, so maybe it had to do with the fact that hers was stronger and bigger, maybe…? She hoped that it was because of her surprise of seeing for the first time an aberration of nature, rather than because of something severe that should not have happened to abovementioned aberration of nature.

After what felt like forever, the monster sighed and closed her eyes in what seemed to be relief. The human felt the grip on her SOUL loosen, then gradually vanish.

 

“Well… It looks fine for now, at least.” the scientist mumbled. “I would’ve preferred taking a full examination to be sure, but I’d need you to be at the lab for that, so I suppose that’s not an option. I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t worsen.”

 

Dawn gulped and sent the two monsters a distressed look. “So… You guys don’t know what happened?”

 

“Not at all.” Alphys shook her head shamefully.

 

“not a clue.” Sans added gravely. “it never happened before, even when human souls were around. so i don’t know what your soul did, but that’s new.”

 

When she saw the looks on the monsters’ faces, Dawn looked down shamefacedly. They seemed to be more worried about _her_ than about the incident she had caused, and that was very sweet of them, but… What _about_ the incident? Maybe someone at least had to worry about that part, too.

 

“D-did something happen to the container? Did we lose something important?” she asked guiltily.

 

Alphys snorted weakly, brushing off her question as if it were stupid. “It’s fine, don’t worry about that. Equipment breaks all the time in the lab, that just happens.”

 

The skeleton shook his skull heavily. “we didn’t lose much and the container’s easy to replace.” he assured. His sockets opened and the glowing pellets stared back at her. “you, on the other hand… quite a bit harder to replace your soul.”

 

There was a tense silence. Maybe, after all, she was also considered to be part of the equipment, and a very rare part at that. She was soon reminded that she was not _just_ a possible friend to them, but first and foremost their last hope. Whether they cared about her or not, they probably could not afford to lose her, because something terrible would happen if they did. The human gulped, not daring to look away from the determination can. After half a minute, Alphys was the first one to regain her speech as she sent her a worried look and scrunched up expression.

“Listen, Dawn, m-maybe it’s best if you…”

 

“Yeah.” She sighed deeply, then nodded blankly but frantically, her face still pale. “I’ll just… go upstairs.”

 

Sans nodded sharply. “good idea yeah.”

 

“I’ll… make us some brunch?” she said tentatively, forcedly tearing upwards the corners of her mouth. “How’s that sound?”

 

“Brunch sounds nice.” Alphys smiled sheepishly.

 

Dawn sent them one last look before leaving the basement, silently wishing that they could manage the rest even if she weren’t there to help. She hoped they wouldn’t have too many heavy objects to move around.

* * *

Noon was near when Sans walked upstairs to see how the human was doing; she had been left alone for hardly twenty minutes, but still, after she left the atmosphere in the basement was simply… different. He didn’t know whether it would have been the same with or without Dawn among them, because the discomfort was due to the incident either way and her presence downstairs probably wouldn’t have changed much, but… Well. Maybe he just needed some fresher air after spending hours working in a confined environment. After everything that happened, he really was tired, too. Maybe he just needed a break.

He had just reached the living room when he heard some knocking on the main door; without thinking, he sighed and slowly walked to it before opening—

 

… Wait. _Who_ could be at the main door, in _this_ timeline, at _this_ moment, when _Alphys_ was downstairs, _Dawn_ was in the kitchen, and _everyone else_ was supposed to be anywhere _but_ here?

 

Well, he had already turned the handle. It was too late to pretend that nobody was home.

 

“Good morning, Sans.” went the cheerful, totally oblivious voice of Grillby. “It’s been a while.”

 

Sans was hit by the irrepressible urge to face-palm.

When he had sent that text mentioning lunch, had Grillby taken it literally? As in, _right the next day_ and _in Snowdin_?

 

“… h-heya, grillbs.” He grinned forcedly, hiding his nervousness as best he could and praying that nobody would appear in the frame of the door while he tried to shield the view of the inside of the house. Which, given his small stature, was a losing battle. “what… brings you here? if you don’t mind me askin.”

“Everybody is coming back. Didn’t you hear the King last week?” Seeing the skeleton’s horrified look, which he mistook for mere surprise, the fire elemental thought a bit more. “... Oh. Now that I’m thinking about it, you probably weren’t there when we talked about it.”

 

 _Everybody was coming back._

Sans had no idea what to do with this revelation, except from desperately trying to tone down the _“ we’re doomed”_ thought that repeated itself in cycles in his skull. That had never happened before… But then again, as far as he could remember, that was the only time the world took so long before going back to the beginning, especially in a timeline during which the kid had died, so…

 

Still. Shouldn’t _Alphys_ have warned him about this?!

He was going to have a word with her, as soon as the immediate problem in front of him was taken care of.

 

“In any case,” Grillby continued joyfully while pulling out a hamburger and a bottle of ketchup from his bag, “since we’re all back in town, I wanted to give you a small surprise and encouragement. It must have been hard for you to stay here all alone. Maybe you should join us tonight, we planned a small party for our return; nothing too fancy, it’s just so we could spend some time together after what happened.”

 

“that’s… oh geez.” Sans seized the gifts with clumsy bony hands, knowing less and less how to react. “um… thanks. i… that’s really, nice of you?”

The taller monster chuckled deeply, readjusting his glasses. “You’re very welcome. I missed you too, you know. During these hard times, we must... stick together.” He brought his hands behind his back and waited in front of the door, still. Seeing that Sans was not moving either… he finally seemed to understand that he was actually not as welcome as he had anticipated. “Um...... Is this the wrong moment?”

 

Sans’s expression lit up in fake realization. “actually, it’s the… generator. it’s unstable. i should prolly go back to it before it, y’know, explodes or somethin.”

 

Come on, this is _so_ easy. Everyone knows that’s her cue.

 

Dawn chose this exact moment to excitedly leave the kitchen with a large plate in her hands and a smile that brightened as soon as she saw Alphys walk up the stairs.

 

“Oh hey!” she called out to the lizard scientist with enthusiasm, not having given a single glance at the front door. “There’s almost nothing but Bolognese spaghetti in the fridge so I wanted to try something a bit different, but all I could find was some random stuff and Pesto sauce. So I made Pesto sandwiches. It doesn’t taste as bad as it sounds.” She smiled and took one of the small sandwiches in question, biting into it and…

 

… and finally noticing the two other monsters present in the room. She froze in place and widened her eyes, barely managing to keep her hold on the plate.

 

Grillby remained perfectly still, facing a human standing almost twice as tall as the one who had been witnessed to murder every single monster that met its path, wearing an apron way too large for her, having just attempted to cook, and having just admitted to living quietly in this house as if it had been a perfectly normal habit for at least some time.

Grillby lowered his invisible eyes to stare back at Sans, who was somehow visibly sweating and smiling way too widely.

 

“.............. I suppose this means you didn’t make it in time for the generator.”

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit late for a note, but if you're interested, I also started recently a tumblr blog focusing entirely on this story, [available right here](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/)! For now it only contains the chapters, but if my free time and health allow it, I might actually start putting some more interesting content there, such as random sketches, drawings and whatnots. Also, no matter what, you can also ask your questions there! Or here in the comments below, that works too. You choose! Just remember that no matter what, I always love to chat so I'll always be here to answer you :D


	8. Act 1, Scene 4.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so, first chapter to break my "10k words per chapter MAXIMUM" rule, by more than 3000 words. I'm sorry, I did my best, I tried, I removed a LOT of stuff that made the chapter even longer, I wish I could get the transition between the last two scenes better even though it would only have made the chapter about 500-2000 words longer, but even with this, it's still long xD Hopefully though, it'll be worth both the wait and the length.

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 4.2

###  [» Read the PDF version here! «](https://drive.google.com/file/d/10u41KQBTbOPqiS-7mYgBUF757h4bVmR8/view)

###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/183995866847/act-i-scene-42)

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* * *

“I’m going to make a wild guess and assume you didn’t plan to tell anyone about this.”

Yep, Grillby was pissed. It was high time Sans said something to salvage the situation with his usual great eloquence.

 

“not… really, no.”

 

Aw, come on. I know you can do better than that.

 

If anyone had ever doubted Sans’s ability to breathe, now was the moment when the most obvious confirmation was made that _yes_ , magic skeleton monsters could, and most probably _needed_ , to breathe. Especially when the afore-mentioned skeleton was stuck in a sticky situation in which one of his oblivious acquaintances was about to either have his mind blown in the worst way possible, or cause the imminent death of another of his acquaintances either by his own hand, or by the hand of another monster as soon as he would set an angry mob after them.

 

The choice was supposed to be easy. Blowing Grillby’s mind would not even have lasting consequences, since the ~~time jump~~ _“Reset”_ he had planned on causing at the end should erase the impending existential crisis and potential loss of sanity— not to mention that, right now, the fire elemental’s sanity seemed to be already hanging by a thread and ready to be lost either way.

But, still. This choice meant that they would have to deal with said existential crisis for as long as they would need before they could fix everything, and although Grillby was quite the chill guy, this was _bound_ to be a major hindrance.

Not to mention the fact that _before_ dealing with the existential crisis per se, they would have to find a way to bring up the topic in the first place, _and_ bring about favorable conditions for him to listen to their explanations, instead of doing what he was certainly thinking to be the most reasonable choice in such situation, that was to say, take care of the obvious public danger in the room, whether pacifistically or… possibly less so.

Okay. Start small.

 

“uuh… yeah, haha. heh.” Sans mimed some stage coughing. “um, grillbs, this is dawn. dawn, grillby.”

 

The human looked surprised by his course of action, but gladly followed his lead as she smiled and made a shy _“Hi…”_ and an encouraging small wave with her free hand.

Grillby did not move an inch, although his fire crackled a bit. Defensively, or as an intimidation trick, she wasn’t sure.

 

“..... Sans. I have known you for almost three years. I really want to believe you’re not completely out of your mind.” The former barman sighed deeply, bringing a flaming hand to the alleged location of his forehead and rubbing it tiredly. “But the more I think about how much I really know about you, the more I realize. I don’t know you at all.”

 

“l-look, uh… long story short, stuff happened. lots of stuff.” Sans did his best to keep a confident eye contact, but he was failing nonetheless. “maybe you could, uh… you wanna come inside? we can take a seat, have a nice chat, and explain all this… stuff?”

 

He remained perfectly still, emphasizing his intense skepticism. “You mean “stuff” like your tab that you promised countless times would somehow pay itself as soon as time would jump back, all the nonsense you say when you’re drunk about paradoxes in parallel universes, undetectable anomalies and mad scientists dying in their own past, or the Timeline Ketchup Incident?”

 

Sans grew pale. “please don’t bring up the tki, i swear it has nothin to do with it.” he said hurriedly. Then he paused, thinking thoroughly about what he had heard and shocked to realize that Grillby had caught up on _that_ much throughout the years, even though he did not seem to take any of it seriously. “in fact it’s, uh, none of the above. it’s complicated. but, i swear we can explain if you just—”

 

“You can explain why you favored staying here and looking after a human instead of helping us survive all this time, even though the last human you assisted decimated most of the kingdom and half of my regular patrons and dear friends.” he interrupted bluntly, crossing his arms. He soon added for emphasis: “Our. Dear friends.”

 

… Yeah. A majority of the victims from Snowdin were part of the Royal Guard, and a huge part of the Royal Guard’s Snowdin division comprised the late members of the Canine Unit. Sans realized this was the first time in a _while_ that he gave these guys even a single thought, and that the last time was _long_ before the beginning of this timeline.

Maybe he really had stopped caring a lot more than he wanted to admit… yikes. He did like these guys, though…

Ugh. He really hoped that once all this mess would be over, he’d be able to care about everyone again, and for real.

But in the meantime… What _was_ he supposed to say?

 

Behind him in the living room, Alphys was still in the doorframe on top of the stairs, and could be barely considered to be in the room at all. She was frozen in place, obviously thinking hard about what she _could_ do to try to help, but sadly she had never met this guy face to face before and had no idea how to deal with him, especially because most of her thoughts were focusing on trying to simply understand what had happened in the first place.

Dawn had remained as still as she could be at first, the only conclusions to her analysis of the situation stating that _maybe_ moving would be the worst possible thing to do at the moment.

Ugh, of _course_. Why are the patient ones always so boring? They never do anything!

 _But_ , then again… Sans seemed to be stuck in a mental infinite loop, Grillby was not amused, and Alphys was giving her panicked looks so _her_ coming to the rescue was probably not going to happen anytime soon. The universe _needed_ a catalyst so time could unfreeze, and preferably this catalyst had to be someone other than Grillby.

 

“L-look… H-h-hey.” she called out timidly, making another hand wave that she wished looked as friendly as she intended it. “I know this sounds nuts, e-especially with what’s been going on— I-i mean I probably don’t know the _details_ of everything, but…”

 

Sans sent her the distressed _“ what are you doing”_ look, and this wordless yet passionate moral support quickly had the fantastic effect of making her realize, first of all, that she had no idea how to answer this question, and second, just how badly she screwed up.

Then again, maybe the skeleton’s mere act of turning his skull around to give her that look had been a mistake, too.

 

A burning dry breeze brushed her cheek and swept her hair out of the way of the surrounding howling wind, followed by a thundering crashing sound in the wall behind her. Seeing the large magic bullets that were now floating right behind the fire elemental’s back, Dawn understood that this was his way of politely asking her to mind her own business, and that at least he had been enough of a gentleman to give her a fair warning instead of, for example, immediately aiming for her. Either that or his aim was terrible, but given the distance between them she wanted to think that the first option was the more likely.

 

Either way, in response to this, she awkwardly pursed her lips, gestured to zip her mouth shut, and carefully took a step back. This seemed to appease the monster at least a bit because, although the bullets remained, they did seem to lose some consistence and somewhat shrink in size.   . Alphys judged this to be the moment to take action, and sneakily walked to the human’s side before ushering her back down in the basement and closing the door behind their path. During the procedure, the two other monsters merely stared at the girls’ antics, their heads slowly turning to follow them with their nonexistent eyes.

As soon as they vanished from view, Sans made it clear that he had not taken Grillby’s exploitation of his single second of distraction lightly.

 

“what the _hell_ , man? you thought we’d attack you on sight or what?!”

 

“Well, not you.” he conceded calmly, though the palpable hesitation in his wording and invisible glare conveyed easily his implied doubts. Thankfully, after saying these words, his bullets vanished completely.

 

“… heh. y’know, it’s funny, ‘cause I’m the one with the highest kill count in this house.” the skeleton said carefully and with noticeable regret, but also and most importantly, with a grave tone and menacing frown on his darkening sockets. “well technically i’ve just been killin the same kid over and over, so it’s debatable whether that counts as one kill or as however many times that makes by now. either way, that doesn’t change anything. it just looks like your instincts aren’t workin right today.”

 

This seemed to effectively freeze Grillby in place. Whether he took this not-so-subtle threat figuratively or literally, it appeared that, unfortunately, he did not interpret Sans’s attempt at a sarcastic joke the way the skeleton had originally meant it. Granted, Sans was now pissed as well, so his cryptic wording and ticked off temper did not help convey the initial meaning, which was: _‘appearances_ _can_ _be deceiving, so try to open your eyes and keep an open mind.’_

 

Instead, although he had refused to believe it until these last words came out, the fire elemental gathered the most alarming message: Sans was actually a traitor to his kind, and/or considerably more likely to be mentally insane.

The former bartender was not sure which one of these two options was the worst; but no matter the conclusion, he knew that he could not handle this alone. He needed help.

 

Grillby’s left foot subtly glided a few inches backwards, as he carefully shifted his weight onto it. And then Sans saw him turn around and dash towards the rest of the town at high speed, too little too late.

During the fleeting half second he could afford to use to think, Sans tried to find a way to stop him that would be all at once pacifistic, efficient, and subtle. He had the time to remind himself that using magic would be neither pacifistic, nor subtle. However, considering the next step, he lacked too much time to properly avoid hasty decisions.

 

Grillby was forced to stop in his tracks when the short body of a way too familiar skeleton literally _materialized right in front of him_ , out of nowhere and without any warning.

Well, ‘stopping in his tracks’ would not really be the most appropriate wording, since the poor monster did not have enough time before the collision to process that he had to _stop_ in order to avoid colliding with the obstacle that just appeared less than three feet in front of him, and as a consequence, collision did occur, and soon both monsters landed in the snow, one on top of the other.

Well. At least, Sans thought, the attempt to stop him from running had been a… let’s say, half success.

 

Too shocked by the weirdness of the phenomenon he had just witnessed, Grillby forgot that he was in a position that would have easily allowed him to overpower his poor mentally disoriented friend, and instead he scuttled away from him, taken over by a senseless yet overwhelming fear.

 

“D… Did you just…?” He kept rambling tensely, his flames crackling as he turned his head repeatedly between Sans’s current location and the faraway, open doorframe of his house, assessing the distance. “How the hell did you… so quickly…?”

 

Sans slowly stood up and brushed himself off, sighing tiredly and slightly tilting his skull in slow horizontal movements. “trust me, that part’s not important.” When he was fully standing and raised his pupils back towards him, he met Grillby’s intensely disapproving glare. He face-palmed. “… well, ok, i can teleport. been able to do that for a while, too. that does sound like something important to mention. i get it. but that’s not the point.”

 

Grillby’s stance became tenser and warier. If his eyes were visible, Sans could have seen him squint them. “Is this really teleporting, or rather…?”

 

The skeleton sighed one more time, burying his hands in his hoodie’s pockets and letting his shoulders slump down in an attempt to look as harmless and friendly as he could.

 

“teleporting, grillbs. trust me, i _would_ know if i had time powers, ‘cause that would’ve been a LOT more convenient for, like, literally everything that happened in my life.”

 

Despite his efforts, once more he had found himself unable to hide his sarcasm and irritation. Of course he would have expected such confusion and prejudice to come out of him; or out of any other monster in general, for that matter. This was the exact reason why he had kept his shortcuts a secret in the first place, after all.

When he saw that his answer didn’t seem to reassure his old friend to the slightest, he deadpanned.

 

“… this isn’t helpin make my case, is it.”

 

“No, it isn’t.” Grillby shook his head slowly, sounding almost apologetic in his tone. Almost.

 

Sans rubbed his skull exasperatingly. This wasn’t going anywhere. “grillby… _please_ , give us a chance. i _know_ this is crazy, but i SWEAR i can explain.”

 

He gave a quick glance at the rest of the town— most of the local inhabitants and his former neighbors were indeed back and working together to put everything back in place, but thankfully they did not seem to be paying them too much attention for the time being.

 

“You say that a lot,” the barman nodded calmly, “but you never did tell me anything.”

“well…” He sighed. Again. “yeah, fair. but, look, it’s the kind of stuff that i definitely wouldn’t expect you to believe right off the bat— we have proof to show you, but… i’d _really_ prefer talkin about it indoors if you don’t mind.” He raised at him a pair of distressed, begging pupils. “please. al and the human will stay in the basement if you want. i promise we won’t do anythin, but it’s REALLY important that you keep the secret.”

 

“Sans, there is a human living in your house, and the Royal Scientist herself has kept this a secret along with you.” Judging from his tone and attitude, it was becoming more and more obvious that Grillby’s chill was actually starting to falter for good. “Knowing what her other secrets were like, I’m afraid it’s a lot more difficult for me to think that there is nothing dangerous with whatever it is you have been doing all this time. I wouldn’t be surprised if you knew about the Amalgamates, too. You didn’t look nearly as surprised as we did during the evacuation.”

 

A shiver ran down Sans’s spine when a dozen bullets materialized around him. Grillby did not wish to _harm_ him, but they were effectively blocking the way to his house.

 

“Sans, this has gone on long enough. If this really isn’t a danger for us, then prove it. To everyone.”

 

“ _i can’t!_ ” Sans blurted out in panic. He quickly regained his composure, or at least attempted to, but in any case he was becoming desperate. “look, trust me on this, i’d LOVE to do just that, ‘cause keeping secrets _sucks_. but i know for a _fact_ that if some people learn about this, even if we’re LITERALLY working to save the world here, they still won’t listen. and even if that sounds crazy, the KEY part of the plan is that i NEED that human to stay safe if we wanna save everyone.”

The fire elemental stayed in place, slowly trembling in concern… But soon he shook his head sadly, sighing in despair. “... I don’t even know why I’m still trying to reason with you.”

 

The implications in his tone were numerous, and coupled with the growing bullets hovering around them and at the ready, it appeared that an actual fight was now becoming more and more unavoidable. Which is exactly why Sans did the first thing he could think about to effectively avoid it.

 

In a blink, a bony hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Grillby’s arm, and then he suddenly vanished from view after being yanked by said hand, while his bullets remained in place in the air but quickly started falling due to gravity before they imploded into tiny, harmless shreds of magic. Sans froze in place, as he apparently needed to rethink his exact actions and fully process what he just did in the span of the past half second.

 

Which location did he focus on when he had shoved him through his shortcut, again? He remembered having the mental image of just about any kind of locked, inescapable room. Maybe he’d sent him in the small cave behind that big waterfall. That’s the sort of place he definitely wouldn’t be able to get out of all by himself. Whoops.

 

Weeeeelp. Problem… solved?

 

… Oh who was he kidding. He’d only made it worse.

 

Much, much worse.

* * *

It took maybe about a full half minute before Grillby could even wrap his mind around _what_ had just happened. But when he saw the dark landscape of Waterfall, the loud, crushing sound of water near him, and the bioluminescent plant life surrounding what appeared to be a mini-cave behind a literal wall of water… Well, he had never stepped foot in this place in his past, that much was for sure; it appeared that when Sans had described his strange ability as ‘teleporting’, he had not lied after all.

 

Still. Fire elemental. Surrounded by water. Bad idea.

He pulled out his cell phone, pondering who he should call for help… But then again, when he gave another thorough look at the waterfall, it appeared that there was no way out of this room other than by going through it, and even if someone could bring him protection like an umbrella, he would still need to walk directly into the river, and he didn’t know how deep it was. So with or without help, there was _no_ way he was going anywhere near that thing.

So… It did appear like his only _real_ way out was through literal teleportation, after all. Which meant that the only person he could rely on was the one who had put him here in the first place. Just his luck.

 

Would Sans… really just leave him here? Part of him still wanted to hope and have _some_ sort of lingering faith in what he had believed to be a rather funny and close friend for the past few years, but the more he thought about the facts, the more his cold reason told him that, demented as he had just proven to be… Maybe his friend really wasn’t one at all, in the end. And he was now paying the price for his kindness and gullibility. Maybe he should have killed that human when he had the chance…

 

Meh, who was he kidding. He wasn’t a murderer. He really didn’t have it in him anyway. Maybe it would have been easier if that human did turn out to have done some… well, human stuff. But even if Sans had kept it safe because it were harmless… It still remained a danger and major hindrance to monsterkind. The kingdom needed a lot more resources to survive, especially after what had happened with the last human. They _needed_ the Surface, now more than ever. And they had _six souls_! Seven, even, if Sans bothered to share. Couldn’t he understand that…?

 

Well… It wasn’t like any of this would matter to him now.

He leaned his back against the wall facing the waterfall and let himself glide against its rocky yet smooth surface, slowly sitting on the floor and pondering his options… But soon, he just sighed in despair.

 

What _could_ he do now…? He was definitely stuck.

 

“Howdy!”

Grillby jumped, then jerked his head towards the origin of that insufferably saccharine voice. Wait, was that… a tiny talking flower? He hadn’t seen vegetal monsters in years. Probably had to do with living in Snowdin. The cold weather definitely wasn’t good for them.

 

Then again, he sensed that there was something… _off_ with this one. This did not feel like a monster at all, he knew that there was _something_ , but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

 

“ _Boy_ , isn’t that unexpected.”

 

Whether the stranger had waited for an answer or not, he didn’t seem to care. Instead, he merely continued, always with that chirpy, seemingly childish voice:

 

“You know, I was never interested in _you_ specifically, before. You always stay at your pub and all, it’s so boring. I mean, I don’t blame you for that, of course it’s just your _job_. But you’re quite the chill guy, you probably would’ve been a lot more fun to hang out with earlier if you weren’t always staying there all day.” Before the monster could even think of asking it what it was talking about, the flower beamed and cut him short, even if he had not even said anything yet. “But now! What a _wonderful_ surprise it is to see you do new things like this! You’re a GEM, I’ll tell you that. And you know what? That thing you did was SO entertaining, I feel like rewarding you right now.”

 

An awkward silence fell in the room, save for the howling sound of the waterfall eternally falling a few feet away from them. They seemed to be on a staring contest, starting from that point.

 

… Grillby had so. Many questions.

 

“... Rewarding me.” he carefully repeated with an emotionless tone after some time, wary and skeptical.

“Yes!” it grinned. “I’m sure you must have a LOT of questions about what this mess was aaaaall about, don’t you?” Somehow, even without anything other than its stem to move around, it managed to make some sort of proud pose. “Luckily for you, I happen to know a _lot_ of things about this place. I can explain everything you want.”

 

The bartender remained entirely still, staring at it. “.......... I was actually expecting you to call for help and get me out of here, honestly.”

 

“Psh. Priorities, am I right?” the plant rolled its eyes, laughing as if it had heard something completely absurd. “I’m sure the trashbag will come back and get you, eventually.” It paused to think for a bit… then an evil, mocking smirk appeared on its face. “… Unless he doesn’t. In which case, yeah, I guess you’re in some pretty big trouble right now.”

 

............. Moving on from the fact that this strange talking creature was not lending the slightest bit of compassion or care to his situation and that for some reason, it seemed to see it as “entertaining” to an extent important enough that it was finding some reason to think of it as hilarious.

 

Grillby had no idea what this being, that he was now certain was _not_ a monster, was here for, or _was_ in general, but one thing he could tell was that it was not to be trusted.

Part of him found himself _still_ hoping that Sans would actually come back, but…

 

Well, he still had some sort of evil demonic flower to keep distracted for the time being. Maybe playing its game would keep it from having… possibly deranged ideas. Chatting was harmless; and thankfully, being a bartender was a synonym to being a great listener, too.

 

Making it talk should keep it busy for some time. The best conversation starter came to his mind naturally:

 

“You know what Sans is doing. Don’t you.”

 

Flowey’s grin expanded, demonically slicing his entire face.

 

“Ooh, I can tell you a _lot_ about him alright.”

* * *

Alphys was freaking out. Sans was walking rapidly in circles. Dawn was waiting patiently but worriedly in a corner.

“You got him stuck behind a WATERFALL!?” Alphys shrieked.

 

“look, i panicked, okay?!” he retorted hurriedly. Although he was still pacing, he tried to slow down and breathe, regaining his composure and ability to think. “i’ll go back to him and try to save the situation as much as it can be saved by now. in the meantime— al, i need you to put the time machine back to the way it was this morning as fast as you can, and reboot it. and dawn…”

 

When he met her eyes, his walking finally came to a stop. The human patiently waited for him to give her his orders without pressuring him, although she couldn’t help but look down in shame, thinking that he had to be hesitating because she was literally useless in this kind of situation and that, probably, involving her in anything right now would only make things worse.

 

Sans looked conflicted and terrified, at best. She could see him shaking and the sound of bones rattling sent shivers down her spine, even from a distance.

 

Eventually, he tore his pupils away from her and squinted his sockets to an extent she had never seen before, as he finally completed his sentence:

 

“… get ready to reset.”

 

Dawn’s eyes widened like saucers. “Wait, **_WHAT_**!?”

 

Her immediate outburst completely overpowered the sound of Alphys’s toolbox crashing to the ground.

 

“S-Sans,” she quickly added in a shy voice, “I’m n-not _against_ it, but— are you sure…?”

 

He sighed heavily, avoiding her look. “i definitely don’t want you to do it. but if we can’t find a way to make sure he won’t tell on us, i think we won’t have any other choice than to erase that event from the timeline. i dunno, next time you’ll just go back to the basement and i’ll invite him for lunch and then make sure to keep him distracted, or…”

“I— I-I got that part.” she cut him short, shaking her head with her eyes closed and flailing her arms around nervously. “I’m just— I’ve never Reset before! I don’t even know how that’s supposed to work, or what I have to do, and— What if I mess up and go too far back in time or something? I don’t want to erase _everything_! And what about Alphys…?”

 

At the mention of her name, they both went to stare anxiously at the lizard in question.

 

“I-I… I’ll be fine.” she assured, looking away. “Either way… I won’t even be able to tell the difference.” she smiled weakly.

 

This seemed to comfort Sans in his idea. Nonetheless… the arguments Dawn had pointed out brought an even more noticeable tension to him, as if he had just realized the possibility that, indeed, she might have a lot less control over her ability than he had assumed.

He should have expected this. This power was supposed to be literally against the most basic laws of nature. Of course he couldn’t expect anyone to figure out something that was supposed to be impossible to achieve in such a short time and without any sort of training or catalyst.

 

“look, i… i don’t know how time jumping works either— in your head, i mean. i know what’s going on with the universe when that happens, but i don’t know if that’ll help you figure it out and we don’t really have time for a thermodynamics lesson right now.” he mumbled uneasily. “just… look, if we turn on the machine again, no matter how far back you go, i’ll be able to catch up. even if, yeah, if you can go back to, uh, just about thirty minutes or an hour ago, that’ll be great. or just go back to this morning if it’s too hard to figure out, i don’t know.”

 

Panic seemed to have overcome him again, even if he marked a pause to try to take a breath. That could definitely not be good news.

 

“either way, i’d like the time machine to be ready before you do that. i don’t have any codeword for “we messed up and had to go back in time but the machine was out during that time”, so i don’t think it’d be a good idea for you to jump back if i won’t remember it. so take your time to just… wrap your head around it for now, i guess?” He stayed still for a few more seconds, tilting his skull repeatedly so he could look at both of them one after the other with an anxious look. “anyway, i _really_ should go right now. can i count on you two for the backup plan…?”

 

The girls shared a concerned look, but they quickly turned back towards him and assured him that the plan was understood and that they would follow it. Trusting them but not the least bit reassured, Sans soon vanished.

Alphys immediately went back to work. Dawn considered offering her help in order to get the machine back in action sooner, but the way too fresh memory of the incident quickly came back, as well as the fact that they had agreed that she would stop helping in the basement in order to exactly stop this kind of accident from occurring again.

 

Besides, Sans had given her a very important mission as well. She had no idea how to go through with it and really hoped that it would not come down to this, but just in case… She had to prepare for this eventuality.

 

The ability to Reset was linked to the amount of determination someone, or some _thing_ had (since Sans expected his machine to be able to act that way); and in her specific case, her determination, just like any human’s, was most probably gathered somewhere inside her SOUL.

So… Maybe she had to try to find that determination and use it for something? Which implied that she had to be more familiar with the fact that she now had a SOUL, first.

 

When Sans and Alphys had done this magic thing that made her SOUL visible, the first thing she had noticed was just how _huge_ it felt. And Sans had confirmed it— it was apparently much bigger than the regular humans’ SOULs were supposed to look like. Also, no matter who had initiated the trick, that big heart stuck in her chest had looked cyan both times— unless it was turquoise…? She wondered if the SOUL traits could be considered to be some sort of spectrum, instead of distinct categories.

 

Either way, according to the game’s lore, it seemed that her trait was ‘Patience’… She had to admit, that _was_ fitting, to some extent. But still… even though it had never been explicitly said through the canon, the fandom usually took it as obvious that Patience was the most passive trait— sort of like the _opposite_ of determination.

 

She had never wanted this to be true and she had always thought that the amalgam _‘Patient means waiting it out and doing nothing’_ was way too simplistic, as well as insulting and kind of infuriating. She was waiting a lot and she _could_ stay still for relatively long periods of time alone with her thoughts, but it was only because she preferred judging when she was needed to stay on the sidelines, and when she was needed to _act_. She was not being passive; she simply saw it as, well, observing, and thinking before acting so she could make sure that when she _did_ get on the move, it’d be to do something worth being done.

 

Most of the time, she _knew_ what she wanted to do with her life, and there were few things that could deter her from doing what she wanted.

So… Yeah. She had to brush aside that fanon prejudice. She _had_ determination, and she _was_ going to use it if that was what she wanted to do.

 

The more she thought about these things, and the more she reminisced how it had felt when Sans or Alphys were doing their trick to show her SOUL around, the more she could now feel that _something_ was indeed there, inside her chest, pounding at a slightly different rate than her regular heart. She would be lying if she said that this situation wasn’t weirding her out, but… She still felt some sort of fascination towards this novelty.

That, and the fact that she had a mission. She had to stay focused on the real goal, there.

 

Concentrating her attention on the feeling of her SOUL beating inside her chest became strangely soothing, after a certain point.

She was deliberately trying not to focus on the idea of Resets just yet in fear that just _thinking_ about doing a Reset would accidentally trigger it too early, but in the meantime, this strange meditation made her feel like she was learning more about herself than she had ever before.

 

Waiting for Sans to return, either with good news or with the order to Reset, she closed her eyes and relaxed, lulled by the funny rhythm the desynchronization between her heart and her SOUL created. She had always loved music, and she found this one especially inspiring.

 

Listening to the music of her life, she would wait.

 

She would be Patient.

* * *

“......... A video game.” Grillby deadpanned. “Is that all? I didn’t expect you to tell the truth, but I thought you’d give a story a bit more credible than this.”

 

“Oh, you don’t believe me?” Flowey pretended to look offended, but it was obvious that it was merely mockingly so. “It’s _really_ easy to prove, you know.”

 

The monster merely shook his head in disbelief.

Alternate universes, he could wrap his mind around it. Sans often mentioned something about alternate timelines when he was drunk. An alternate universe where the laws of physics were different and magic was not a common part of it, he could imagine it. Well, he had trouble figuring out what exactly it could look like and how the people living in that sort of world could deal with their daily lives without having the possibility to use magic, but why not.

 

But then. Sans remembering time loops? The last human being controlled by _another_ human from one of these worlds who was playing a _video game_? _This_ was ridiculous.

 

“This doesn’t make sense.” he huffed sternly. “Video games run on numbers and scripts, if I’m not mistaken. I may not be a scientist, but as far as I’m concerned, reality doesn’t work that way.” He looked around them in the small cave, giving lazy nods towards the mushrooms and other members of the local ecosystem: “Does all of this look like a video game to you? Strangely, I don’t seem to see that many pixels.”

 

“Well, sure, when you see it like that, I guess you won’t get to see it _that_ easily.” the flower rolled its eyes, mocking annoyance and disinterest. “But if you know how to look at it properly…”

 

The being locked its eyes on him, gazing with an eerie intensity. Grillby felt watched in a way that he was certain he had never experienced before.

Suddenly the flower’s smirk expanded horrendously.

Grillby was not given the chance to say or do anything to question this behavior, because immediately _something_ appeared out of nowhere, without making any sound.

 

* GRILLBY 28 ATK 17 DEF  
* Clearly needs a reality check.

 

“… You can get some very precious information about the people around you, thanks to this.” it continued, grinning like a demon but sounding carefree and delighted as ever. “You get to learn a lot of things about your surroundings and neighbors. What they’re like. What they do in their lives. Their strengths… Their weaknesses.” There was a small humorous huff when it read the flavor text. “Hee hee. Maybe you _do_ need someone to help you set things straight. I guess little old me will have to do.”

 

“T-this is… What is this?” Grillby nervously and cautiously walked closer to the hovering, yet immobile black rectangle. He tried to observe it under a few different angles, but quickly discontent washed over him as he fully regained his composure. “..... You’re the one making this, right. This is just a bullet shaped like a pixelated box.”

“Well _duh_ , of course I’m doing this.” It rolled its eyes again, as if all he had said was nothing but random absurdities. Again. “The game’s the one making up the numbers for most monsters here, though.”

 

The fire elemental carefully took a few steps back when the flower made its way closer to the pixel-y floating dialogue box, not the least bit fazed by a view that definitely did not belong in this world.

 

Then again, if it were the one who created it in the first place as he was guessing, it was only normal to not be surprised by your own abilities; but on the other hand… The more he stared at this otherworldly shape, standing eerily still and frozen in space and time, the more he was convinced that if, indeed, the flower was the one doing it… The raw power and control it had over its magic capabilities attained extremely worrying levels he had never seen in his life, let alone dared imagine.

 

The pure perfection in the shape of this rectangle and its letters, the perfection of its stillness, the perfection of its colors and how perfectly clear the separation between the black and white parts were… Even if the feeling it diffused made it clear that it was composed of nothing but pure, basic magic, and was supposed to act just like any sort of bullet of the most regular kind, Grillby had never seen _this_ kind of flawless mastery before.

 

Even the bullets of the most talented monsters had some sort of flaw in their symmetry, or would move in small, irregular patterns due to the influence of parameters the monster had no control upon, such as potential winds or local gradients in temperature or magic concentration.

This perfection arriving from outside of time and space… This was not only _unnatural_. This was literally thwarting all the laws of physics he knew and had never learned about.

 

“I don’t think any player got to see your stats before, what with you never going out to fight.” A thin yet flexible vine rose out of the ground and went to gently touch the numbers on the flying black screen, as the flower watched it with amusement. “They’re not too bad, I guess. Maybe they’d be higher if you got to some more serious training from time to time.”

 

The vine lightly poked the bottom right corner of the box, and immediately the text disappeared and the rectangle rapidly shrank until the window it represented became too small to keep track of.

That was definitely not how magic bullets were supposed to disintegrate when their summoner dismissed them.

 

Grillby was still far from convinced, but even if he did not count the small doubts that started to form in his mind, the mere thought was enough.

Even if this “video game” talk were nothing but an absurd fabrication coming from the mouth of a being who was obviously lying through its teeth, denying the veracity of this preposterous tale would only leave him with the idea that this tiny talking flower, who would hypothetically have enough power to pull this off without any visible effort, would have made everything up just to mess with his mind and drive him insane.

Which, admittedly, was actually starting to work.

 

The flower went back to staring at him with that same cheery grin and those soul-devouring eyes.

 

“I’m not gonna lie: under the game’s perspective, you’re pretty boring. I don’t know what the players find in you, you hardly ever say any lines! You’re just some random background NPC. You never even get out of your pub.” It had said all this with a dejected, almost disappointed tone… Yet, immediately it bobbled its face up and down in extreme delight. “That’s why _this_ is so exciting! It’s the first time I’ve had something new about you in FOREVER! Sure, there’s probably not much going on in your life since you do exactly the same thing every day _even_ without counting the Resets, but still! Now you’re out of the loop! There’s GOT to be something interesting we can do with this, don’t you think?”

 

 _...Define “interesting.”_ , Grillby did not dare say out loud. He should definitely not encourage it.

For some very _strange_ and _unexpected_ reason, his instincts told him that he did _not_ want to find out what this thing’s definition of the term was.

 

Sadly, he quickly found out that he did not really have a say in the matter. The being came to face him eagerly in what he quickly recognized to be a battle stance, and it gave him an encouraging and enthusiastic look. Definitely not willing to battle _that thing_ but definitely not willing to die stupidly because he would not even try to defend himself, the monster found no other choice but to at least stand on his feet and brace himself for whatever was going to happen.

 

The one thing he had _not_ planned for, was for the entirety of the world to turn to black and disappear.

 

He looked around in panic, but there really was nothing more around them other than himself and the Thing. Well, not for long: as soon as the flower asked him rhetorically if he was ready (he was obviously not, but it wasn’t like it would care for his opinion), multiple other dialogue box-shaped bullets appeared between them, this time going in a variety of colors, sizes and contents in the text and numbers they displayed. Grillby recognized some that were probably meant to look like button options, and some voice in the back of his mind snarked that he _knew_ he should have taken some time to play some video games with his young son more often, because if he had then at least _maybe_ he wouldn’t feel that lost and disoriented at the options laid before him.

 

“This is what the fights look like in the game. Well, technically they’re called ‘Encounters’ instead, but you get my point.” the thing explained excitedly. Then it showed a wide grin. “So! Convinced yet?”

 

If this meant that it would leave him alone, Grillby was very willing to say ‘yes’ just to please it and hope that it would free him from whatever this void place was.

When it saw his slow nod, though, it appeared that it had wished for a more expressive response. Too bad, because he was not going to freak out openly on that thing. He could not afford to show any sort of weakness right now.

“Aw, come on! This is going to be fun!” it called out impatiently, with the exact same tone as the one of an innocent child asking a grown-up to play with it. “Try to do something!”

 

The _last_ thing he wanted to do was to play along in such unnatural setting, but once more, he quickly reasoned that following that ungodly brat’s wishes would be the best way he would maximize his chances of survival. Grillby looked down at the buttons laid before him, not so willing to enter this sociopath’s game, but at least confused and concerned enough to look for answers.

While the ‘FIGHT’ option appeared somewhat tempting given the circumstances, he wanted to stay prudent. It was foolish to attack something when you didn’t even know just how _powerful_ it could be, and if that damned creature was indeed the one creating all of this, then challenging it to an actual magic fight was beyond suicidal.

 

He gave a quick look at his other options, and thought that the button ‘ACT’ was probably the more appealing option. ‘Acting’ would surely give him a wider range of _actions_ he could indeed pull off, assuming the name was to be trusted. However… When he tried to lift an arm and press that button, nothing happened.

 

He struggled. Couldn’t move his body.

He tried to speak. He found himself unable to do so.

The flower’s demonic face was the most hideous and horrifying image he had ever laid eyes upon.

 

“You can’t.” it smirked in sadistic victory. “Because this isn’t your turn.”

 

The fire elemental kept trying to fight against this invisible, ruthless force that maintained him paralyzed in place, but it was hopeless.

Just what kind of sorcery was this…? This _thing_ was doing this, it _had_ to. But if he had to choose between these phenomena being caused by a video game of some kind, or being the effects of some sick creature’s evil intents… He could not fathom the extent of the power it would hold— let alone when its intentions were so malevolent.

Grillby found himself believing that he almost preferred the option that his reality was a video game. This thought… He was not sure whether he should find it revolting or appealing, given the current circumstances.

 

“So! It’s my turn!” it exclaimed excitedly, stating the cruel obvious state of reality. “Hey, you wanna know what’s going to happen if I press that ‘FIGHT’ button?”

 

He could not move. Aiming just about any sort of blow against him would be so easy. Had this been why so many monsters had died to the hands of a human _child_ , including the best soldiers of the entire kingdom? Had this been because they literally couldn’t dodge or defend themselves against any of the attacks launched at them…? When this human child was roaming through the Underground still alive, was this what they used to kill their victims? Humans were not supposed to be able to use magic— not in such way. So if the human was not doing this… What did?

 

Struggling but unable to move even a single finger, when the flower’s vine came closer to that FIGHT button as he could do nothing but listen to that psychopathic laugh, the revelation finally hit him once and for all. After all, how _else_ could he explain everything that had happened so far?

The flower had been right all along.

 

This was a video game. He was in a video game, he was nothing but a meaningless NPC spending the entirety of his existence in his pitiful pub, and he was going to die.

 

Just as the vine was approaching dangerously this accursed button and about to press it, it stopped. The creature extended its stem so its face could make its way over the dialogue boxes and come to smile at him from up close.

 

“Hee hee hee, you should see your face. Come _on_ , I was just kidding! Killing you isn’t fun. Not when you can do so many things OTHER than being dead! Being dead is _boring_ , right?”

 

Before he could process what was happening, the stem retracted back to its former place, and the vine reappeared to press two other buttons he did not bother to read.

Soon, the flavor text shown on his side of the ‘battle screen’ changed to display a new sentence:

 

* Flowey is sparing you.

 

Grillby realized he could move again. Instead of pressing any buttons, he used this newfound mobility to nervously step back until he bumped into the wall behind him.

The flower’s smirk of deep satisfaction was wider than ever.

 

Thank the Angel, when he did collide with that wall, he realized that the black void had faded to leave them exactly in the same place they were standing in before this whole thing had occurred. The buttons and boxes were still there, but they quickly vanished as well.

 

He was shaking way too much for him to not collapse on the ground and sit in a rush. The intensity of his flames could have disguised his tremors as just their crackling, but this hurried gesture could not be brushed off so easily.

 

“So! What did you think of your first REAL fight, huh?” God, would that thing _ever_ give him a break? “What? You don’t have any thoughts to share with me?”

 

If his words were scarce, his glare was hopefully talkative enough. Couldn’t this thing just leave him alone? Wasn’t proving its point enough as it was…?

 

“Ooh, I see what it is. It’s that whole _“I’m just a video game character and I might not even be real and why should life even matter”_ train of thought, isn’t it. Tsh.”

 

It rolled its eyes as if this _“train of thought”_ were about the stupidest topic it had ever heard of. But what _about_ it? Shouldn’t this “Flowey” entity be just as much a “character” of that game as he was…?

 

But if it indeed were, then how could it have known about all this? How could it do what it had just done? Instinctively, Grillby assumed that if no monster in the Underground had been aware of this mechanism before, then maybe it meant that it had to be an ability specific to some very particular entities…

And if this world were indeed confined inside a video game, then the entities in question would be, namely, the players in control of this world and its destiny. Did that mean that ‘Flowey’ was a player itself…?

He knew far too little to find any decisive conclusion, and he was far too tired and _done_ to care. He just wanted this to be over. He just wanted to be left alone, and…

 

… And what, exactly? Even if he could get out of this place, what would he do with this knowledge? Could he just go back to his life and greet his neighbors so obliviously, when he now knew the truth about their own existence?

 

Almost as if it could still prove that it could feel empathy after what had happened, Flowey came over to him gently and whispered in what _sounded_ like a caring tone:

 

“Hey, don’t worry about all this. There’s going to be a Reset, sooner or later. You won’t remember a thing. You’ll get to go back to live your boring life without having to question any of this anymore.”

 

Did it have any idea that saying this was _not helping_?

Judging how it immediately dropped the reassuring face and came back to its cheery grin, definitely so.

 

“Unless you want me to come back to you and give you a little reminder in the next timeline? Just ask!”

 

It stayed in place, still and patient, for a time that felt way too long for what this thing seemed to be used to.

He merely turned his head resolutely so he would stare at anything but where it was standing.

He wasn’t looking so he could not notice, but at some point the flower froze in place, as if it had just realized something.

 

“Oh… Looks like it’s almost time for me to make my leave.” it said dejectedly. “Well, now or never, friend! I asked you a question, didn’t you hear?”

 

Once more, he was only greeted with silence and stillness.

He was not going to give it that credit.

Sighing, Flowey shook its face in overdramatic discontent.

“… Well, I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then. I’ll just let you know, that’s disappointing. I had a lot of fun here. First time in a _loooooong_ while.”

 

Just be gone already. What could even make that thing feel the need to leave in the first place, anyway?

… No, this wasn’t the right question to ask.

The real question was, did he still have the energy to muster the intent to care about the answer?

 

Coincidentally or not, about a minute later, a certain skeleton appeared out of thin air and landed near the waterfall. Look who finally decided to show up.

 

The little guy looked at him with concern and fear, not daring to make any step closer without his permission.

 

In response, Grillby remained mute and still. Did he know about this “video game” situation? According to what ‘Flowey’ had said, his plan not only proved that he fully acknowledged its existence, but also that he was focusing on “freeing” them from that game’s influence. Just that.

 

Was that what Sans had had to deal with for so long…? No wonder he drank so much when he thought his brother wouldn’t notice, and no wonder he became so cynical and depressed whenever his mental filters were inhibited.

 

“… hey.” Sans greeted shyly when he could not bear the silence anymore. He raised his left hand and showed a heavy looking plastic bag. “i brought the grub. it’s not as good as your food, but… i guess dawn tried her best. the sandwiches taste ok.”

 

The bartender sighed, then looked away.

If he already knew what kind of existence they had and that their entire universe was bent to the will of nothing but a simple machine remote-controlled by _humans_ of all things… What was even the point?

He had stopped caring, probably somewhat reasonably so. Well no, it was far from reasonable; but if he were to be stuck in time loops and live every iteration with this unbearable knowledge, how else could he keep his sanity and stop hurting his own feelings…?

Carefully, the young skeleton went to sit down next to him against the same wall. The fire elemental came to think that since he had not witnessed his discussion with Flowey, maybe he did not know that now _he_ knew, and…

 

What if he were doing this solely for his sake?

That would be sweet and a nice thanking gesture for the gifts he had given him earlier, but…

 

“You only came to keep me company for a little while and then let me fade out here, didn’t you...?”

 

“wha— no, of course not!” Sans looked genuinely hurt and horrified to hear that his friend could ever have such idea in mind. “grillbs, no matter what happens, i’ll get you outta here.”

 

“Why? Aren’t you worried that I’ll tell the others as soon as I get out? I’m just wasting your time, here. Aren’t I?”

 

He gave him a worried pair of glowing pupils, but soon he could not afford to raise them towards him. “well… yeah, the safety of the plan’s comin first. but still. the worst that could happen is that if you don’t want to believe us…” He scratched the back of his spine awkwardly. Bad sign. “well, i’ve told the human to jump back in time so you’d forget all about this. would be easy from that point to make sure that accident won’t happen again.” Finally he managed to raise his skull again and let a bright expression of despaired hope shine in his sockets. “but… i’d really prefer if we didn’t have to do that.”

 

Well… Now that he already knew what he was about to tell him about his plan, it probably was going to make things a lot easier. While he still had to wrap his mind around why exactly Sans would have needed to bring an overpowered human from another dimension for his plan, he could not deny that he fully trusted him regarding his intentions.

Sans offered him one of the sandwiches. He took it politely.

 

It took him a few moments to realize that Sans was shaking.

“… l-look, i’m. i’m sorry i panicked. for real.” The short skeleton buried his skull between his hands and knees, moaning in guilt. “i didn’t wanna fight you, and if we’d fought then the others could’ve found out, and… i’m really sorry i brought you here. i didn’t think.” He slowly raised his skull back, sending a shy and concerned look at him. “h-how are you holding up, by the way…? do you want me to take us elsewhere for this? i could find a more comfy place to talk. warmer one, too.”

 

Grillby turned his head away from him, tightening the grip on his crossed, nervous arms. “… It’s fine. Doesn’t matter.”

 

In the end, it wasn’t that much different from Snowdin. What was ice anyway, if not water about to melt. He just had to look out for puddles, and… that giant screaming wall of death facing them.

 

Would the waterfall really harm him if it were happening outside of a ‘FIGHT’? He wondered if all these times when monsters would accidentally hurt themselves for just about any reason, some sort of invisible ‘FIGHT’ was triggered somehow and they received damage.

 

Did they have ‘Hit Points’? All video games had that, right? How many did he have left…?

 

Sans took a long breath. Apparently, he was not ready to explain anything. And now that _he_ knew what he was about to tell, he could not blame him for being nervous and fearing being taken for even more of a madman than he already had appeared to sound earlier.

 

“so… i’ll be honest, i’m not really sure where to begin. there’s really a lot to it.”

 

“..... Maybe starting from the beginning would be best.” Grillby tried to encourage.

 

“heh. true.” he chuckled. “so… what exactly do you know? guess i’ll just try to take it from there.”

 

So he was letting him choose the conversation starter, huh.

Grillby hesitated, but as he thought back of what had all happened before he arrived… He honestly couldn’t care less about answers. He had had more than enough already.

 

Part of him argued that maybe keeping Sans up to date with this encounter would be preferable, but… He really just didn’t want to talk about it. Chances were, if he could remember the time loops and knew about the game’s existence already, he wouldn’t be teaching him anything new. He probably had met that thing himself in the past.

So instead of talking about the unpleasant present…

 

“I know that you and your brother moved in from Hotland about three years ago. We first met when you came at the bar some time after that...” he said, reminiscing the events with a fondness he had never truly had the opportunity to discover, let alone cherish. “You hated the fact that you had to move at all. I remember you saying that it was your foster family’s idea and that you didn’t have a say in it because your brother made the final decision.”

 

“yeah, totally got me.” Sans laughed. “crazy how people can change. i would’ve never guessed i’d ever feel at home in this ol’ town. yet here we are.”

 

“I remember the day you two arrived. Your brother was doing his best to be the sweetest neighbor we could have...  
... You showed up later, wearing thongs and sunglasses. You even had that stupid shirt with the palm trees on it.”

 

Grillby chuckled warmly as he recollected the improbable scene and how the first image the townsfolk had had of the pair had been that of Papyrus discovering his brother with shock, only to scold him for almost half an hour in the middle of the streets about how he had asked him to make an effort to look friendly and ‘blend in’ so they would not disturb the inhabitants from their daily lives and adapt to the local quietness because that was exactly what they had moved in for. If _that_ wasn’t a perfect first impression.

“Talk about provocation. It was obvious how much you didn’t want to be here.”

 

Sans was laughing along, the same tone of nostalgia in his voice. “heh heh eh… good times. i kept gettin stares for a week and whenever they mentioned the event i’d pull out the sunglasses and a punchline. everybody was always askin where the glasses were comin from. nobody ever figured out i was literally just teleportin them.”

 

So _that_ was how he did it. Magic trick up his sleeves, _riiight_. More like magic superpower unjustly accorded to a skilled conman with the tendency to make terrible jokes.

Then again, in retrospect, a lot of his pranks were twice as hilarious now that he _knew_ how he had been doing them.

Part of him was now genuinely impressed and somewhat infuriated that nobody had ever found out that he could use some kind of teleportation, _himself included_. Now that he knew, some occurrences were just _so_ obvious. How had he not found out earlier? Was denial really _that_ strong an influence so it could bend perception to such extent?

 

As he reminisced his own memories, Sans eventually sighed. “i guess y’could say that’s the only good thing that came out of the accident… kinda. really wasn’t worth the effort though.” Seeing Grillby’s confused look, he immediately added: “don’t get me wrong, that’s a super cool power and i got used to having it probably a bit too much by now, so i’d totally have trouble adjustin to things if i lost it. but if it meant that could set things back to normal… i’d do it without any second thoughts.”

 

“You had an accident…?” the fire elemental asked in surprise in-between two bites. The sandwich really didn’t taste as bad as it looked, after all.

 

“yep. very bad one, at that.”

 

“Were there ever any good ones?”

 

Sans snorted. “true. unless you count That One With the Glasses.”

“...... You’re still forbidden from even looking at my cellar.” he glared coldly.

 

“come on, you and i both know that i was the one who saved it. i was innocent, this time! without me you would’ve all been doomed, by wine or by fire.”

 

Honestly, Grillby neither needed nor wanted a reminder.

 

“Could you remind me why I haven’t just banned you yet?”

 

“‘cause startin from the day i showed up your pub started getting thrice as much attention?”

 

He… legitimately did not have any counter argument to this. Sans did attract customers like a magnet, for some _unexplainable_ reason. “... Seems valid.”

 

In response to the bartender’s mockingly defeated shrug, the skeleton chuckled lightly. Grillby realized just how long it had been since he last saw him laugh with an actual, unhinged sincerity…

But this was not one of those times.

Despite everything, a weight remained.

 

“...... Getting back to this accident you mentioned. Is this where you got your health issue? I heard you liked sparring until you got... “sick.” When you said it wasn’t worth it, is that what you meant? And what exactly did you mean by “normal”...?”

 

A part of him that he now wanted to silence wondered how this ‘health issue’ would transcribe according to the video game rules. If he assumed that the system of HP was indeed in use, would this mean that something went wrong with his HP…? That would explain why battling would be too dangerous for him.

 

Some other part of him also started making random connections between different elements he had gathered. If Sans knew about this video game problem and had had some sort of “accident”… Could it be that the two were somehow related?

Looking at the skeleton’s reaction, something was indeed blatantly hurting him; but he realized that he was off track.

 

“… well, that too, i guess.” he murmured tiredly, shrugging and seemingly deliberately avoiding his last question. “but what i really had in mind is that… we lost someone really important on that day.”

 

In a matter of seconds, everything suddenly clicked. All the pieces of the puzzle Grillby had collected throughout the years were now connected… or, well, almost. But at least, now he knew enough that he could very easily deduce where this conversation was going.

 

“When you were drunk, it was common that you’d mention your father, and you said once that the move was related to the fact that they wanted you to move on from his death…?”

 

He had never taken it seriously, and even now, even if he was ready to hear just about anything and trust his words without checking… Something just wasn’t making sense.

 

“But the odd thing is... Everyone knows the man died more than twenty years ago. It’s… strange that you would remember him at all. Wouldn’t you have been a toddler at that time?”

 

Sans refrained a sarcastic huff. “… yeah. odd, huh.”

 

Grillby was not sure whether the waterfall’s current could have received some sort of strong and sudden draft, but he felt like this sharp and desperately cold answer had dropped a bucket full of freezing water on his head.

It burned, it hurt, and it felt hopelessly cold and lonely.

 

Sans took a stiff breath, avoiding his look.

 

“grillby, i’ve… look, i’ve never been able to tell anyone about this before. only alphys knows ‘cause she was there at the time. i’m not even sure the human knows. but, long story short… the accident wasn’t from twenty years ago. it actually happened three years ago.” There was a tense silence. From the strained expression in his sockets and strained clenching teeth, it almost looked as if the skeleton was repressing a sob. “when i arrived, everyone thought it was normal that he’d died so long ago. it’s like if everything he’d done in the past years had just— never happened. nobody understood why i missed him _now_ and not earlier, but… it’s just that _he was still there_ at that time, okay? he’s…”

 

When he felt a flaming, yet comforting and genuinely sympathetic hand on his left shoulder, he understood that in the middle of his rambling, he had started shaking. When he raised his skull and tilted it to his side, he met the bartender’s confused, but compassionate look.

 

“... You don’t have to continue if it’s too hard.” he muttered cautiously. “I think talking about it would help you feel better about this issue, but... It’s no use if you feel like you have to.”

 

“i… well, i said it before. keepin secrets sucks. but it’s… even now, i just literally CAN’T tell anyone about it. i mean now you look like you’d believe me, but it’s… hard. i guess part of me still thinks this can’t be real. this is too good to be true.”

 

An incredulous laugh stiffly came out.

 

“look, i’ll just drop the fact that al tried to get a therapist for me, but that didn’t really work out. the lady wouldn’t get a thing. all i got out of it was a stupid pet rock to take care of. so i kinda just… got used to dealin with the fact that even if i tried to be honest, nobody’d ever get it…?”

 

He looked away, his pupils dimming dangerously in despair.

 

“even al. she’s known the whole thing for years by now, but… she doesn’t remember my dad at all. she can’t understand how it feels.”

 

This all but confirmed what Grillby had to do. Or rather, what he should avoid doing, at least at the moment.

The poor guy was obviously not ready; whatever he was thinking about, whatever it was that he had been through, he was hurting even through the mere reminiscence of the events. He had never seen him so… vulnerable.

 

Thankfully, he did not currently feel the curiosity or urge to obtain answers. The conclusion was obvious, and he did not hesitate further before sharing his decision with the young monster. Said decision was met with great shock:

 

“you’re gonna believe me? just like that? you’re not even gonna ask about the human, or…?” Sans was sincerely dumbfounded by his choice. Maybe, in fact, this only made him fearful and warier about what could lie underneath: “… you’re not gonna gather a mob as soon as i get you outta here, are you?”

 

Grillby vigorously shook his head, sending soothing flames around and calmly confirming that he had no such intention, at least not anymore.

 

“....... Look, Sans.” he sighed, looking away. Yet it felt like there was some small joking tone in his words and attitude, as if he could almost see him smile. “After what I’ve seen, I’d believe just about anything you’d say without questioning it. You’d tell me that you’re secretly a human mage in hiding, I’d still believe you and leave you be.”

 

Sans snorted. “psh. where did you even get that idea? the shortcut thing?”

 

The bartender shrugged playfully. “Maybe. I can’t even feel you using your magic when you’re doing it. That definitely should raise some red flags.”

 

That made the young skeleton laugh all the more openly, as he retorted that this only confirmed that it was now clear that the elder would tell on him as soon as they would get out. His chuckles were amazingly contagious.

 

When the laughs calmed down, a serene silence came and let them breathe in peace for a few minutes.

“Still... Can I at least say something about all this?” The skeleton sent him a confused pair of pupils, but his skull soon nodded tentatively. “I hope I understood at least the most important part. But if you’ll allow me... Maybe you should look after your relatives more. Especially at times like these.”

 

Sans stiffened. “don’t— i care about my family.” he retorted uneasily. “i really do, i just…”

 

“I’m not saying that you don’t. I’m saying that because you have lost some of them... You seem to forget the ones who are still here.” he explained calmly. “I’m not so much saying this for us, but rather for your own sake. I know we’re not family and that we won’t ever be able to replace the ones you lost, but when you moved in town… You made a new family here, in a way. Didn’t you?”

 

The young monster relaxed a bit and smiled weakly yet sincerely at the comforting thought. He still looked like he wanted to fight against the idea and find arguments of his own, but it was probably more for the sake of arguing more than because he was completely disagreeing.

 

“It’s amazing that you’re actually able to save… almost everyone. But if you only focus on saving them and that in the meantime you stay so reclusive and alone… You’re doing a lot more harm to yourself than you realize, I’m sure.” he added. “With such high stakes… You need to hold on to your sanity one way or another. Staying close to the ones who can support you even a little is the best solution I could think of.”

 

Damn, he really knew how to make his soul melt in pure warm-heartedness, didn’t he. That guy really was the best bartender in the whole world. Not only was his food the absolute best, he was also the best listener, and when his turn came to talk… He surely had the best words, too. And damn did he care a lot about his regulars. All of his regulars.

 

“I’ll be frank.” Grillby added after another silence, looking at the now empty bag Sans had brought. “When you mentioned having lunch, this isn’t what I had in mind.”

 

There was a blunt snort. “yeah, me neither.”

 

“I mean, it’s… I feel like we both needed this.” he admitted calmly. “Although I could have done without this whole reality-breaking mess.”

 

“tell me ‘bout it.” Sans took a chunk out of his ketchup bottle. He quickly paused, then raised a hesitant look: “speaking of which, with that whole thing about keepin a human around…”

 

Grillby took a heavy breath. “... It’s alright. From what I’ve seen so far... I think the less we think about it, the better.”

 

Honestly, Sans felt the same. He confirmed that verbally absent-mindedly but with relief, and soon looked for something to change the subject.

Fortunately, he quickly found one, as he magically pulled a white rectangular device from seemingly nowhere.

 

“hey, wanna see something cool?”

 

“........... What are you doing?”

 

Sans grinned trollesquely. “just wait ‘till you see the human’s face. gonna be a blast.”

* * *

When both monsters appeared in the living room, they were alone. Sans quickly deduced that the girls had to still be in the basement, and after all, they probably had had nothing else to do in the meantime. When he was given the possibility to accompany the short skeleton downstairs, Grillby hesitated, but soon decided to follow his lead.

 

The reunion was obviously held with shock and concern, but after Sans simply explained how the situation had evolved with just one sentence ( _“ relax, he’s cool now.”_), the tension quickly loosened. The awkwardness, less so.

 

“eh, it’s ok. the human doesn’t bite.” he chuckled while nudging the tall fire elemental at his side, seeing that he was still standing stiff and as close to the door as possible.

 

Dawn rolled her eyes jokingly, but did not seem too offended by her implied comparison with a wild animal. Surely this was a common prejudice among monsters anyway, especially so after what they had been through.

She felt uncomfortable at the idea that she might have to go through some more discriminatory situations of various degrees, but at least she could understand where these were coming from. At least, she reasoned that if “specism” was a thing similar to how it went in some fan-stories, discrimination against humans was a lot more justified than the other way around.

 

“So… H-hey?”

 

She tried saluting Grillby again, just as shyly as the first time, hoping that it would not give the same result. Thankfully, this time, the monster returned her shy wave with a similar one and an almost inaudible _“..... hey.” _The awkwardness remained for a few more minutes during which various introductions were made and civil apologies were exchanged, but a few jokes here and there gradually yet quickly eased everyone into a warmer atmosphere, and soon the four could discuss freely.

 

“Also, Sans, am I gonna get my phone back?”

 

The fire elemental immediately sent him a dirty look. Yep, he was totally responsible for the disappearance of her phone, and he knew it.

Sans merely shrugged and gave it back to her without giving it much thought, but as soon as she turned it on, her expression fell to a mixture between bafflement and rage.

 

“oh yeah, forgot to tell ya sooner, but makin a counterclockwise spiral isn’t the most imaginative you could’ve come up with, y’know.” he chuckled. “anyway, i hope you like the new wallpaper. looks a lot better than that dumb selfie anyway.”

 

“… Moving on.” the human teenager grumbled, turning her device’s screen off and burying it in one of her jeans’ back pockets. “Are you guys gonna talk about that ‘TKI’ thing?” she immediately asked with a smug smile and playful eyebrows. “I’ve been wondering how anyone could ever put ‘Timeline’ and ‘Ketchup’ in the same sentence.”

 

Intense surprise washed over both men, but when they exchanged a quick look and reminisced the events, they remembered that they had indeed mentioned it at some point in their argument when she was still around.

 

“It’s better if you did not know.” Grillby deadpanned with what almost looked like an expression of fear and disgust.

 

“just drop it. grillbs and i agreed to never talk about it again, and trust me when i say that there’s a very good reason for that.” Sans nodded solemnly.

 

“Ha. You know what? If _you_ get to steal my phone every five minutes and try to guess my password, then **_I_** get to ask you about it whenever I want and try to guess what that whole thing was about.”

 

Another look was exchanged. Sans snorted, then openly started laughing deeply and somberly with a menacing grin.

 

“fair enough.” he shrugged jokingly. “you’re still never gonna find out, though.”

 

“I wouldn’t want to deter you, but I’m fairly certain that your imagination isn’t enough to even begin to fathom what happened on that day.” Grillby quickly eyed Sans and muttered heavily: “... In fact, now that I know what you’re capable of with those new tricks of yours, I finally understand HOW you did it.” He looked to the distance and shuddered somberly. “It only makes it even worse.”

Yeah, if anything, that only made her even more determined to find out, because _dang_ did that seem to have been something _huge_.

 

This was why, for the next few dozen minutes, the four spent the rest of lunch in the living room, listening to the human’s first guesses while eating the rest of the mini sandwiches she had prepared. None of her hypotheses were even _near_ what had really transpired, if both Sans and Grillby were to be trusted, but at least they sure had a blast listening to all the nonsensical ideas she came up with.

 

Once lunch was over with, Grillby excused himself but offered to come back if he could be of some assistance. Sans quickly seized the opportunity.

 

“hey dawn, can i talk to you for a minute…?” His uneasy tone had an immediate effect on the one he had directed this question to. She silently nodded and turned fully towards him, wordlessly asking him to continue: “i was thinkin. do you… have some friends or family back in your world?” He scratched the back of his skull awkwardly. “i mean, ‘f course you do, but… you must miss’em, don’t you?”

 

“… Yeah?” She looked down, biting her lip guiltily. She appeared to feel conflicted and homesick, and she was trying to hide it. “I… I know I’ll get to see them again when we’re done. I mean, you’re not gonna go back on _that_ part of the plan, will you?”

 

“nah, bud, ‘f course not. i promised, remember?”

 

She cracked an almost sad and guilty, yet somehow soft and warmhearted smile as she gently released a breath she had not realized she had been holding.

 

“Yeah. You did. I’m saying it again, but, it really means a lot that _you_ did, of all people.” she smiled softly. “So… I guess I _do_ miss them, but… I’ve been trying not to think about it too often. That just makes it… harder? For no reason, at that. I’ll get to see them again, eventually, so, I just have to wait and do everything I can to help in the meantime, right?”

The expression on Sans’s skull fell to the extent that his ever stuck smile now obviously showed that it was not genuine to the least.

 

Grillby’s words about _‘putting your feelings for your relatives behind your duties’_ resonated in his mind, and he looked away. Well, he hadn’t said it that way, but it was the idea that he had tried to convey.

 

Sans realized that maybe this attitude was _one_ thing he had in common with that kid, but… What he could read clearly on her face was that contrary to him, _she_ had not had a lifetime worth of time shenanigans to distance herself from her family and friends and unwillingly stop hurting so much from the separation.

 

She was hurting, and since he had been the one to rip her apart from her family in the first place, he was the one to blame for that heartache. And even if she knew that as well, all she was saying, with pure honesty, was that she wanted to brush that pain past her for his own sake. Yikes.

 

Taking a deep breath, he blinked himself out of his thoughts before raising his skull to face her again. Was he really about to say this…?

 

“… ok. um. so… if i told you that i could make it so you can at least talk to them. right here, right now. would you want me to do it?”

 

The way the light of hope illuminated her widening, bewildered eyes, was the only answer he needed.

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	9. Act 1, Scene 5.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a nightmare to write, and you have no idea how glad I am that I finally got rid of it. Finding the right balance between plot needs, character realism and entertainment value was a torture in this specific chapter, because compared to the earlier ones, this is a chapter in which, in the grand scheme of things, not much happens. And yet, the consequences are _just_ big enough to make it absolutely mandatory.
> 
> Anyway. I'm positive that this chapter is one of the biggest letdowns in the story of this fanfic, but hopefully I'll get the next chapters done soon as a compensation ^^'

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 5.1

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###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/186125016202/act-i-scene-51)

* * *

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* * *

Dawn was not exactly sure what to think, when Sans had so bluntly yet casually mentioned that at _any_ moment, if he had so wished, he could have allowed her to talk to whoever she wanted from her original world.

Of course, the first emotion she had felt was unexpected joy, and only when she felt that joy did she understand just how much she really missed her family and friends, even after just one day. But soon, this euphoric happiness faded to let her rational part fall like an anvil: because if, anytime, she really _could_ have stayed in contact with them, but that _she had not_ for the past twenty-and-something hours…

It meant two things. The first one was, her previous hope that time would function differently in the two universes was most certainly wrong. The second was, since time passed at a similar enough rate in both worlds so they would be able to have an intelligible conversation at all…

Everyone had been left without any news regarding her whereabouts for the past twenty-and-something hours.

 

Her parents _had_ to be incredibly worried, and she had left everyone hanging on the server, waiting eternally for an _Undertale_ livestream that would never take place. Yikes.

She **had** to let them know she was alright.

 

She followed Sans hurriedly, until they were back in the basement and facing that giant _Matrix_ -whatever machine.

She watched the skeleton flip the switches hastily, as if he had just now realized that he might not have wanted her to get in trouble because of him kidnapping her for the Sake of Saving the World. For that, or for whatever other kind of motive he had for so suddenly changing his mind — depending on whether he had always had this fact in mind and wanted to keep it secret until then, or if he had simply forgotten about it and was somehow just reminded of it.

 

Dawn’s previous thoughts regarding her situation and how this machine of his worked rushed back in her head, as she watched him settle the sciencey-magicky parameters that needed to be settled before the connection between her real world and the current virtual one they were standing in could be restored. Yet, she found herself thinking that the more she was trying to rationalize its mechanisms and logic, the less sense she could make of it. Maybe she had to admit that the true nature of the connection the game made between her world and the one of _Undertale_ was nothing short of a mind-screwing, reality-breaking mystery.

 

“H-hey, uh…” she tried, eager to obtain her answers but worried to disturb him in his probably super important manipulations on the machine. “Do you think you could explain how you’re going to do this? Preferably in English?”

 

The last detail to her request made him chuckle lightly, since he guessed that she had obviously meant to add it as a result of all the previous times when Alphys or him had tried to bring complex concepts down to her level of understanding, but found themselves unable to do so without bringing in the technical vocabulary that naturally went along with it in the process.

 

Which is why, naturally, he expanded his grin and turned his skull in the most trollesque way he could afford.

 

“i’ve been able to use interdimensional photon transmissions from your plane of existence to track down the game’s activities through entropy variations and quantum entanglement, so i’m just gonna do the same thing i did when i brought you here, that’s to say track down the game’s signal to locate your home’s coordinates and settle a stable enough connection so we can communicate for a little while. child’s play.”

 

The only answer he obtained was a non-amused glare.

This was the exact answer he had been expecting from her, but he still feigned disappointment and shrugged, sighing loudly as he shook his skull overdramatically.

 

“i’m gonna hack your wi-fi.” he casually rephrased.

 

The human teenager blinked. “Oh.” That… did sound simple enough. Kinda-sorta?

 

Hacking the Wi-Fi, huh. She guessed that since the game was linked to Steam and that if there were indeed some virtual _Matrix_ -y stuff going on, it was natural to think that Sans would be able to access her world’s internet network one way or another… And since Alphys had mentioned that they had _seen_ the fandom stuff at some point, this was probably how. Maybe, even, this was more or less the way he had learned about the game’s existence somehow…?

 

Sans was about to push one last button, but hesitated. Taking a stiff breath, he turned around and sent the human a nervous look.

 

“just, before we start anythin crazy.” he mumbled. “d’you mind if we set some basic ground rules?”

 

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Sure? I guess?” she blabbered, puzzled. “What kind of rules, though?”

 

If anything, Sans looked extremely nervous.

 

“well… for starters, i’ll _really_ appreciate it if you don’t tell too many people ‘bout what happened.” The teenager’s expression fell into a deeply scared and offended one, but before she could open her mouth and express her indignation, he quickly added: “i-it’s ok if you need to tell your family. i won’t ask you to lie to them. it’s just… it’d really be better if the word didn’t get out _too_ much that we’re, y’know. real.”

“But _why_? If anything, if the other players get to know what’s going on, it’ll only make them realize they should leave the game alone, right? Wouldn’t that make things easier for you?”

 

The way the skeleton’s supposedly stuck smile somehow scrunched up in an apprehensive way was supposed to be talkative enough on its own. Yet, from the moment that he had willingly kidnapped one of said players for the sake of his plan, shouldn’t he have expected that to be a sign that he was bound to eventually break the game’s fourth wall for _everyone else_? She had believed that after spending so much effort explaining _her_ everything, he would have been naturally willing to let everyone else in the loop as well.

 

He sighed tensely.

 

“’k. let’s imagine we let everyone know and they believe us. sure, they’re prolly gonna do something ‘bout the game.” he muttered somewhat reluctantly. “but then what?”

 

“What do you mean, ‘then what’?” she shrugged in confusion. “You’ll have saved the world, that’s what.”

 

“yeah. sure. but then, what do you think’s gonna happen when they know?”

 

Seeing his extremely serious and fidgety expression, the teenager decided to actually take some time to follow his advice and think more deeply.

 

What _could_ happen if her entire planet learned that _Undertale_ actually controlled a somewhat virtual world in which the “characters” were actually sentient?

 

The fandom and the media would go crazy, that much was for sure. The game would attract even more attention than it already did, although for different reasons. She wanted to keep enough faith in humanity to believe that the game would be kept safe from unfortunate fates like scientists experimenting how it could be possible to create a fully functional world and do ethically questionable things like recreating the AI systems or something, but she couldn’t blame anyone for keeping in mind such possibility.

Yeah; the more she thought about it, the more she could imagine what kind of consequences there could be for Sans and everyone else. They were already vulnerable because the game could bend their world to the players’ will, and this happened without anyone being aware of anything; how much control could the players actually gain if they _became_ aware of the full potential of the game’s power?

 

Once more, Dawn wanted to maintain enough faith in humanity to safely believe that neither Toby Fox and his team nor a vast majority of the fandom (if not all of it) would ever let something like this happen; but could she blame Sans for distrusting the ones who had been responsible for all his suffering for so long? Definitely not.

 

Sans was fidgeting. The poor guy…

 

“look, it’s just… i really don’t know THAT much about the physics of your universe, i just found out enough to know that your souls are stronger.” he rambled uneasily. “but when it comes to inter-dimensional travel, the thing is— it’s WAY easier than it sounds. i mean, i’ve been able to build a functional portal machine just out of the materials available in the underground, while you have your _entire planet_ at your disposal.”

 

Wait, so was he implying that this machine of his was closer to ‘actual science’ than to science-fiction, even to her side of humanity…? Was he implying that if the mere knowledge of his machine went out, scientists or just about _anyone_ from her original universe could _easily_ build their own? Wow. That was… certainly an unexpected twist.

 

“if something goes wrong in your world… as far as i know, there’s no reset option there. i just… i just don’t wanna mess up anything.” he quickly added, averting his glowing pupils and letting them wander.

 

While she had imagined that Players taking advantage of the game’s interface to rule this world was bad enough, arguably the idea of more and more humans coming from her world to this one and exploring the Underground for whichever reasons could be even worse. At least, when she reminded herself of how things had gone repeatedly through her world’s History when simply different cultures of _humans_ were involved, and that in some parts of her world this still was a reality… Yeah. Between the _Undertale_ fans who would probably become invasive tourists, and all the other kinds of people who would have some various interests in visiting and/or researching the place… Yikes.

 

“so… i _hope_ i’m just being paranoid, but if too many people get to know for sure what’s going on, then… i’m scared of what could happen. maybe it could lead to some great things, and we’d get to hang out or stay in contact; but even if things work out… i’m not the only one you got to learn a lot about. i shouldn’t be the one to make any decision about this. since that many people already know that much about everyone… it’s not something that depends on just me, y’know?”

 

Definitely. Just thinking again about the ‘tourism’ scenario was enough to imagine that even if the fandom would most probably make sure that they get the happy ending they deserve and have comfortable lives… it was nothing more than a poisoned gift in some way, since in return, no monster would be free from the celebrity exposure.

 

One thing she was certain about was that a _lot_ of monsters could in fact _suffer_ from this spotlight, like Napstablook or the Whimsuns just to name a few (she would have named Alphys if she didn’t look so fine about making fandom-related jokes with her… but still, there probably was a lot of differences between bonding with _one_ random fangirl, and being immersed in attention by _all_ of them all at once).

And she wasn’t even getting started with all the possible controversies that could be born out of this, involving monsterkind and humanity in both her world and this one.

 

But in the end… Dawn realized that even beyond the mere fear of bad things happening, Sans’s fear was actually based on something different.

Sans’s fear was not _specifically_ due to his distrust of the Players. It was a fear of the unknown. Because if they let her world know the truth, they would end up in completely uncharted territory with no means to ever go back.

Dawn wondered if, after spending so much time trapped in the Resets and getting used to knowing how every little thing occurred by heart… could it be that going back to a life in which he would be unable to predict the future had become a source of anxiety by itself? If only in the case where the consequences would be so important and irrevocable, she could easily understand his uneasiness.

 

But maybe, after being stuck for so long… he had started to find some sort of comfort in knowing every outcome? If this was the case, he certainly needed to settle back to the normal uncertainty as smoothly and gently as possible. Starting the uncertainty path with a life-changing, reality-breaking choice that involved multiple worlds and the fate of his entire civilization _not_ being a smooth start was the understatement of the century.

Seeing that his interlocutor was intensely listening yet perfectly silent, the monster eventually felt the need to fill the awkward silence with yet another statement, as obvious as it may be:

 

“so, maybe that wouldn’t be too bad, but with a few thousand people already knowing all about us…”

 

Dawn mindlessly cringed upon hearing his words. “Uh, I don’t know what the real number is, but I’m pretty sure you’ll need a few more zeroes than that.”

 

Sans actually winced. “… not helping.”

 

She bit her lip guiltily, instantly realizing her words’ accidental yet harsh lack of sensitivity. “R-right. Sorry.”

 

Way to go, dumbass! Just add even more pressure.

 

So. This had to stay as much of a secret as it could be. Which meant that if she indeed intended to tell her family the truth, she _also_ had to find a way to convince them to keep the secret as well. Well, how much _fun_ would this have been if it were going to be so easy as to just give them a call and say the magic words _“Hi Mom, sorry that I didn’t give you a heads up yesterday, it’s just that I got kidnapped by a videogame character because he’s trying to save his universe from time loops and he needs me to stay with him for a little while, but don’t worry, I’m just staying in a post-apocalyptic underground cavern populated by magical creatures that will want to kill me on sight if they find me because they think humans are relentless killers with no compassion or something, oh and also I may or may not be stuck as a virtual avatar of myself trapped in my computer or something, I have no idea how this thing actually works”_ and expect things to miraculously work out by themselves? Given how _smoothly_ things had gone with Grillby less than an hour earlier…

 

“Look. No matter what happens, I promise that I’ll do everything to make sure the secret doesn’t get out in the open.” She tried to sound confident, probably as a way to convince herself as well that she knew what she was doing. “I’ll ease them into the situation and…”

 

She _needed_ to tell her family the truth, but they had to make sure that said truth would still remain secret enough for everyone else. That seemed complicated… but doable.

That was doable. They just needed a plan. A fool-proof one.

 

“… Well, actually I have no idea how to do this.” she shamefacedly admitted after a full minute of silent, but regrettably unsuccessful scheming. “I guess I’ll just try to contact Lys and tell her first.”

 

Sans’s expression showed that he seemed to recall this name, but was confused nonetheless. “lys…”

 

“She’s the one who made me play in the first place.” the human immediately explained. “So, she already knows most of the story, and she’s the only person close to my family who’s deep enough into Undertale to listen to us without too much trouble. Hopefully.”

 

The skeleton hummed, then made a slow, heavy nod. Albeit not convinced, he seemed at least willing to trust her judgement.

 

“i guess it means that the rest of your family _doesn’t_ know about the game…?”

She sighed loudly and tensely, shrugging in unease. “They know that it exists, but that’s it. I’m not even sure my parents would remember its _name_.”

 

Which meant that if they wanted to tell them the truth, they would have to explain his world’s full concept, culture, laws and physics first, _before_ explaining why he had kidnapped their beloved daughter without warning. Joy.

 

“As for my brother…” she muttered absent-mindedly while continuing her reasoning. “He’s a complete wildcard. That’s why Lys is the safer choice to me. If we get Lys, we win.”

 

Sans hummed again, processing the added chess pieces now on the board and following her strategy. Part of him was still wary about the idea of contacting a _friend_ rather than family, but since Dawn had mentioned that it was _the_ friend who had been responsible for pulling her in this situation in the first place… Dawn wanted to implicate her in order to let her know what happened, but there could be two various motives behind it. But in the end…

 

“… i won’t mind if you wanna tell her too. you’re probably right, and even if you’re not… i get it.” He released a heavy breath. “and… if she needs convincing— i’ll help. or, uh, _try_ to help.”

 

Dawn raised a pair of surprised eyebrows at that, but the soft smile she pulled right after that showed her gratitude and the relief of seeing he trusted her.

 

Still… His expression soon became that of one frightened skeleton who had seen things in his life and wanted for nothing but freedom and calm, and whose actions in the very near future could either offer a brighter destiny, or undo all his work by tainting his Happy Ending permanently. His look of desperate hope hurt in so many ways…

 

“are you sure this is going to work?”

 

As much as he trusted _her_ , he very obviously feared that he couldn’t trust her family and friends to keep the secret. And knowing her parents… She had the same fear.

She could very well imagine her mother starting a hysteric panic attack and blabbering some nonsense to the police without letting them explain the full story. Whether the police would believe her or not was beside the point, because if this happened then they probably would get in trouble either way.

 

“It’ll work for Lys. I’m sure of it.” Dawn assured confidently but in an almost monotone voice, as if she had mentally repeated it in her head multiple times and only now dared utter this mantra for him to hear as well. “The hard part’s gonna be my parents… There’s no way they’ll handle everything in one go. But if we have Lys, she’ll be a huge help.”

 

The more she thought about it, the more confidence and trust she felt towards her friends; but Sans’s reluctance, and the fact that he was more and more trying to hide it, only raised her remaining doubts.

 

“Sans…” she called uneasily. “If it’s too dangerous to tell them, we c-can always abort the mission, you know. You don’t have to risk everything just for me.”

 

“no… it’s fine. i’m sure we won’t get exposed so easily. and after talkin with grillbs earlier, i… i got to think some things over.” he admitted slowly, carefully weighting his words. “they’re your family and all, and you’ll be here for a while, so… they deserve to know what happened, too.”

 

Dawn’s silent but meaningful nod was all he needed to feel the depth of her motivations, and to understand just how worried she was herself. Surely not having any news from her home was hurting her to the same extent as her family’s lack of information was hurting them.

 

Hearing his answer, her eyes flashed with a spark of determination, but some remaining doubts made it waver nonetheless. They were about to do it, that much was now certain and unavoidable. But when it came to _how_ they were going to do it… This was where they could either save the situation or condemn it entirely. It had been hard enough to tell _one_ monster, who knew Sans personally and had seen firsthand what was at stake. Now, telling humans from a world in which magic did not exist and who didn’t even _know_ what the video game was about, and this without getting them to freak out and call the police immediately…? Talk about a lost cause. How glad she was that she had Lys to convince first.

 

Sans took a deep breath… Then, after sending her one last look and exchanging one last tense nod, he turned towards his machine and flipped the last switch. Immediately an unholy mixture of whirs and roaring hums were heard as the huge generator started trembling and the entire device vibrated menacingly; but after a few dozen seconds, thankfully, it all calmed down and the noise was soon reduced to a mix of somewhat soothing background purrs.

 

And then, it began. Feeling her phone vibrating in her pocket, Dawn pulled it out and watched the screen: one notification popped up; then a second; then a dozen.

 

“… looks like they’ve been busy.” the monster piped up in half-surprise.

 

“More than half of them are PMs.” she stated as she browsed her messages. “And they’re still coming…”

 

While he had certainly predicted that some of her relatives would have naturally sent her random messages while she was out of range about whatever daily activities she was going through in her normal life, the amount of them was something he had _not_ seen coming. And seeing the girl’s face when she read the newest ones… Whoever sent those messages definitely wasn’t talking about the weather.

 

When she raised her head and finally separated her eyes from the screen to look at him, her face had lost way too many shades of pink.

 

“… They already called the police.”

 

One sentence. Just _one_ sentence.

 

She immediately went back to her phone, letting her fingers run on its surface, click, brush, dance on the buttons and the miniature keyboard that sometimes appeared. Soon the screen changed to show a single name and a dorky image, along with an audible ringtone.

Sans first feared her panic could have caused her to start something reckless, but when he read that the name in question was “Lys the Nerd BFF 🌸”, he felt somewhat reassured that, even through said panic, she was at least sticking to the plan.

 

“Come on, come on…”

 

They both stared at the screen anxiously for a few more seconds, but eventually, the call ended on its own, only offering the options to try again or give up. When she gave the sidebar at the top of the screen a closer look, it finally seemed to hit her:

 

“… It’s ten thirty. We’re on Monday. She’s at school.” She face-palmed and grumbled. “Of course.”

 

“guess that can’t be helped…” Sans sighed heavily. “so, what now?”

 

“She’s gonna have a break soon, but it probably won’t last long enough and she’ll be in a rush.” she reasoned out loud. “I guess it’s best to wait until lunch break…”

 

Just as she was saying these last two words, she suddenly frowned and crumpled her face in confusion, then looked again at the time shown on her phone.

 

“… We just _had_ lunch break.”

 

“looks like there might be some time difference or somethin.” the skeleton shrugged. “i guess that would’ve been a pretty big coincidence if it just happened to be the same time in both our worlds.”

 

She hummed, considering the implications of this reveal, and realizing that it explained a few tiny weird feelings she had had on the previous day without giving them much more thought.

However, she could not delve too much into these details as, once more, her phone started vibrating again, this time much more fiercely. Someone was trying to call her, and as soon as she saw the name, she bit her lip uneasily. She raised her eyes towards Sans, answering his silent question:

“It’s my brother.”

 

“… does he know the game?” Sans asked nervously.

 

Dawn’s thumb was shaking, but after one more second of hesitation it brushed the screen and rejected the call. “I told you. He’s the wild card. He knows about it, but I have no idea how he’d take anything.” She sent him another look, this time with more confidence: “I think we should really stick to Lys… It’ll only take two hours at most. I can send her a PM in the meantime so she’ll call ASAP.”

 

The tension in his bones seemed to vanish slightly, and he nodded. “sounds good.”

 

The human went back to brushing her phone’s screen in various rapid motions, waltzing between apps and typing words in seconds. She tried to go for a simple and short message, but it also needed to be one that would not trigger too many questions — just enough questions to have Lys give her a call as soon as she would read it. She just needed to type, press some virtual buttons, and—

… And the keyboard button she was about to press changed from a regular space bar to an “Answer Call” green button a split second before her thumb pressed it.

Charlie had just tried to call her again right in the middle of her typing. The universe _really_ hated them on that day.

Before either of them could process what had happened, a blurry human face appeared on the screen.

The quality of the video was terrible, but it was just clear enough to show for certain that the guy was _not_ happy.

 

“Oh hey there, Dawn. Fancy seeing you here. Wherever you are.” It was strange to conceive, but the sarcasm in his voice seemed both exhausted and done, and yet spicy and alert all at the same time. “Looks like you got one hell of a crappy Wi-Fi, _wow_. Where you at, Montana or something?”

 

“Uuuuuuuuuh…” Dawn tried to send a discreet worried glance at Sans, only to realize that he had already disappeared from the spot next to her and had already teleported to the other end of the room.

He was staring at her with a look of stunned panic, but at least the surprise hadn’t stopped him from acting quickly. He sure had sharp reflexes.

 

“So, are you gonna explain what exactly you’ve been doing?” the human quickly added, not waiting for his sister to answer anything to his previous rhetorical questions. “Or judging by your face, you probably intended to just keep ignoring me forever. Must be fitting since you didn’t tell us _anything_ before vanishing like you did.”

 

“Well, i-it’s complicated but… I can— explain?” She had intended that question more towards the skeleton than towards the one she was supposed to be talking to. In response, the monster seemed to distort his skull in some sort of unsurely reluctant grimace, but eventually he tried to look somewhat supportive and shrugged, sending his arms flying dramatically in the process to emphasize his point.

 

“Like hell you’re gonna explain, missy.” he retorted with bitter haste. “What were you _thinking_? Why’d you just _leave_ for some reason?”

 

Something in Dawn’s chest sank painfully.

 

“Wait. You… you think I _ran away_?”

 

“What _else_ did you want us to think!?” The video’s quality had a resolution just high enough to show that he had rolled his eyes in absolute exasperation. “You disappear from your room! Nobody sees you going through the front door! You don’t tell us _anything_! Just so you know, Mom didn’t sleep all night, and she’s not the only one.”

 

Dawn flinched. Sans silently sent her a questioning and compassionately worried look, as if to ask her if his brother always sounded this aggressive while addressing her. The guilt in her eyes seemed to be that of someone who was _not_ used to this kind of situation, so he assumed that it was not. On one hand, it was a relief that she wouldn’t go through this sort of situation often; on the other… The fact that this specific iteration seemed so serious only emphasized the gravity of the present.

 

She bit her bottom lip in guilt and concern, shivering. “… How many cups of coffee did you take today?”

 

“Oh so you _really_ want to know, huh?” he scoffed. “Ha. Here I thought you wouldn’t care about what _we_ ’d feel after you vanished without a trace. Maybe if you’d left at least a note or something, we’d have some clues to start investigating from.”

 

The tired bags in his eyes squinted slowly, as the young man reconsidered his last sentence and seemed to realize that _maybe_ leaving clues wouldn’t have been the smartest thing to do if her goal was to not be found and that it was incredibly dumb of him to suggest she should have thought of consciously jeopardizing her own escape plan.

He needed more coffee.

 

“… My point is.” he sighed tiredly. “We’re gonna find you anyway. If you tell us where you are and let us bring you home, we’ll just have a talk and that’s it. I don’t know, are we not a good family or something? Is that the problem?”

 

Dawn’s expression literally melted into a crumpled mess of guilt and pain, with a pair of two chocolate eyes losing themselves in the void. In a last-ditch effort to find some sort of guidance, these eyes went wandering into the eye-sockets standing almost ten feet away.

She had hurt her family so deeply; they were just as hurt as her, and not only were they hurt, they were also _lost_. How could they have known that the reason behind her disappearance was of (somewhat) supernatural origin? Of course they would have assumed that, without any obvious exterior reason for her to leave, the only reason left could only have come from inside the family itself.

Were they feeling guilty of whatever they thought they could have done to hurt her in the past? But this wasn’t what it was about at all! She loved her family, her friends, her life… She had literally no reason to leave.

She had never wanted to leave them in the first place. She had never wanted to be kidnapped. She had never asked anyone anything. Those two pitch black holes she was losing her eyes into had never asked for her opinion before taking her here. Did Sans ever consider her relatives when he promised that she would go back to her world safe and sound? Putting her family through such emotional torture was neither safe nor sound!

 

If her ‘real world’ body had actually disappeared contrary to what she had previously expected, if time was not passing so differently in both worlds, then Sans was literally stealing part of her life away, not only from her, but from everybody she knew as well. Maybe he had not intended it that way, or maybe he thought that the stakes of saving his world were worth inducing that pain to others; but now, as her mind was racing and turning around those new elements she had gathered, she herself was losing all sense of certainty over everything she thought she knew.

 

What was happening? She had no idea. All her previous theories seemed to be now disproved with everything that was occurring in this instant. Yet when she was looking at the skeleton’s eyes, although he was tense, he did not look nearly as lost as she was. After all, he was the one who had brought her here, and he was the one who knew exactly how all his experiments had worked and how his plan was supposed to go. Was there something obvious she had been missing ever since the beginning?

 

… Was Sans consciously hiding something from her, even?

 

“Dawn, I’m _trying_ to talk to you right now!”

 

Hearing her name brutally snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked back at her phone’s screen, and her brother was staring gravely. She apologized in a small voice for spacing out, but he brushed off her words and retorted:

 

“There’s someone with you. Isn’t there.”

 

The distraught distress running in her eyes took all trace of color from her face. Had she seriously busted Sans just by _looking_ at him? She found herself shaking uncontrollably.

 

“C-Charlie, it’s…”

“How many people? Are you running away together? Are they hippies!? Dawn I don’t know what they crammed into your head but you HAVE t—”

 

“I’m sorry!” she exploded in panic. “I really can’t go home right now, but I promise I’ll be back! I— I just don’t know when, but… L-look. Please. I’m not in danger. That’s all I want you to know. I know you’re all worried about me, and I’m sorry I can’t come back, but— I-it’s just maybe a question of a few days or weeks, I think…? M-maybe I just need a time-out—”

 

“Is that what you want us to tell your school? That you need a fucking TIME-OUT!?” he scowled. “Dawn, do you have _any idea_ how much trouble you’re in right now? Just wait ‘till Mom hears about this, she’s gonna FLIP.”

 

“’Cause you really think I came here by _choice_?!” she huffed in disbelief. “I didn’t realize you knew me that little.” Admittedly, that last one hurt to say.

 

“How else did you expect us to interpret it? Can you tell me why _you’re_ the one who answered the phone?” he asked rhetorically. “If you’re implying that you were kidnapped or something, I don’t think you’d be able to talk to me right now, Dawn.”

 

Despite Dawn’s attempts at explaining the situation, that last sentence effectively put her at a loss of words for a few seconds, as she could not figure out where to start to even begin to explain that one rationally. Of course starting her explanation with “I was kidnapped” was not going to make sense unless this specific argument could be justified first, and she could not justify this argument first without telling her brother beforehand that she had been allowed to contact her family in order to explain what was going on because even though she was not in danger she would not be able to go back to her home before her kidnapper would be done saving his universe, and she could not explain that before explaining first _why_ the universe needed saving in the first place, and she could not explain that without first telling him that she had been kidnapped because her presence was needed for the universe to be saved, and she could not explain that without first saying that she had been kidnapped.

 

This last sentence was a very convoluted way to say that no matter where she intended to start her explanations, she would first need to have another part of the situation explained first, in such way that there was effectively no way to properly start the explanation at all.

 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Charlie spoke again, certainly assuming that the teenager’s silence was the proof he needed to ensure that he was right. “If you wanted us to think that you were kidnapped so you could cover up whatever it is you’re really doing, you should’ve tried harder than that.”

 

Whatever it was that Dawn answered to this accusation, Sans had stopped listening.

There could be a lot of reasons why this scene would be painful to watch for anyone, whether their reciprocate hurtful words would reach your compassion even though you did not feel involved in the argument, or whether the bickering that was slowly tearing siblings apart was annoying you; it was very likely that multiple reasons of both categories were stacking up in his mind, alongside this strange sensation he could feel weighing on his back. Either way, the skeleton eventually found himself unable to watch these two siblings being desperately at each other’s throats, as the volume of their frustrated attempts at convincing each other kept rising.

 

“okay, now that’s enough.”

 

Before they knew it, Sans was right by Dawn’s side and had already snatched the phone away from her.

Admittedly, at this exact moment when the monster found himself facing the screen, he froze for a short moment, as if he had momentarily forgotten what he had done this for, or as if he just realized that he had acted out of pure impulsiveness without having any plan in mind.

But, quickly enough, this feeling disappeared. After all, the plan had always been to tell that guy the truth. They just needed to deviate slightly from that original plan and do so earlier than they had anticipated. Surely having _him_ explain everything instead of Dawn would make things easier to believe.

Speaking of Dawn, she was now stuck staring at him with a gaping jaw and a pair of round shocked eyes.

 

“heya.” he soon saluted the screen, casual as ever. How he could look so relaxed in such a moment was simply beyond her. “so. you’re her big bro, huh? nice meetin ya. you prolly wouldn’t care, but i’m a big bro, too. so i guess that makes one thing we have in common.”

 

On the screen, the pixelated, low-res picture of Charlie squinted his eyes as he approached his face to his own screen and seemingly attempted to better distinguish what was going on.

 

“… Who the fuck is that clown?”

 

… Looking at the bright side, this was a much better reaction than one of overt panic with loud screams and unstoppable and pointless running around. On the other hand, though, the young man’s expression was a lot less surprised than he had expected.

When Sans sent a quick glance at Dawn’s expression, she seemed just as surprised as him, if not more, that her brother wouldn’t show any more shock than this.

Two options were laid out in front of them. Either this guy had _seen things_ , or, the most likely option: he simply had not fully grasped the truth behind what he was looking at, for a variety of possible reasons.

 

Reminiscing how events had transpired earlier, Dawn decided to go with the same strategy Sans had used with Grillby:

 

“Okay, uh. Charlie? Here’s Sans. Sans, Charlie.”

 

She remembered too little too late that Sans’s strategy had failed miserably the last time and felt compelled to face-palm and celebrate her own sheer stupidity. In the end she did not, but it was very tempting.

Charlie did not move an inch. The only traits that subtly shifted on his face slowly displayed one single rhetorical question that needed not to be uttered to maintain their impact. This expression was nothing more than the pure blandness of the perfect mixture between condescending sarcasm and absolute skepticism. In one word: _“Really?”_

 

“So. How can I put it. Um.” Dawn pursed her lips awkwardly. She took a short but deep breath, preparing her answer; and then:

 

“You ran away with a cosplayer guy.” her brother deduced bluntly.

 

Her shoulders deflated like a leaking balloon, stupid sound effect put aside.

 

“Oh, come _on_. Don’t tell me you can’t see it!” This time, she fully succumbed to the call of the legendary face-palm, and felt absolutely no regret for it. “Dude, he’s _literally_ right in front of you, lights on and everything.”

 

“Yeah, I see pixels of very low quality and a cosplay with a questionably less bad quality. So what?”

 

Dawn could hardly believe it. How could he be so dense?!

Then again… She quickly remembered how dense she herself had been the first time she met Sans — and she had even met him face to face. Well, while they had met they were in complete darkness, so she had an excuse. What was this guy’s excuse now? The bad quality of the image?

 

… Judging from how blurry his own face appeared to her on her screen, admittedly, she could easily imagine how, even from up close, the image of a monster that still had an anatomy so close to a human’s could be mistaken for an actual human, thus fueling her already skeptical brother’s rational doubts. Oh how the tables had turned.

 

“looks like it runs in the family.” Sans whispered with a grin, unable to repress the temptation to openly reminisce.

 

“Shut up.”

Under lighter circumstances, the dorkiness of her death glare would have only made him patronize her further.

 

But the situation was serious, and dangerously unstable. Luckily for him, it appeared that Dawn was taking all this even more seriously than he did, and the cogs of her brain were turning and fuming at high speed right now, desperate in their search for a viable solution. Because, obviously, as things were so far, they were going nowhere.

 

“Is there any way to improve the reception?” If they could make the image less blurry, Charlie was more likely to see every single detail of their surroundings and themselves in the glory of all the unearthly magic. That would be a first step; small, but unavoidable.

 

“doubt it. y’could try getting closer to the machine, but it won’t change much.”

 

Well, there goes that idea. Just great.

Dawn wondered for a moment if she could ask Sans to show off some of his actual magic in order to make a point, but she quickly shuddered and shook this idea away from her mind. Either the shock would be too great and she would actually get her brother to freak out and become completely out of control, or, gracious thanks to her phone’s lack of reception and the video call’s majestic blurriness, knowing her brother, he was totally able to shrug off Sans’s bullets and other tricks as random effects, and/or Christmas decorations thrown around, even.

 

No matter how she was looking at it, she had no idea how to put some sense into him. Not from a distance and with such limited resources.

 

When once more, her brother asked her what she was doing and warned her that they were going to find her sooner or later, she couldn’t filter her thoughts anymore and only a flood of exasperated yet desperate truth exited her mouth.

 

“Please, you have to listen… I-I don’t know how to tell you, but even if you’re looking for me, I… I’m sure you won’t be able to find us that way.”

“i confirm.” Sans nodded solemnly. “if you planned on searchin around, you’ll never find us.”

 

“What, so you’re saying that you left the country or something? You’re still in America at least, right?”

 

This made Dawn stop for a few seconds, as she took some time to consider her options.

 

“I… honestly have no idea _where_ we are, technically speaking.” she suddenly realized.

 

Did the Undertale Earth look the same as hers? Were the Surface’s countries and continents even the same? How different was this world’s human History from hers?

 

And to push things even further, if she added that “virtual world” problem in the equation… Did anyone even bother to program the Surface’s landscapes at all, besides the few parts shown in the True Pacifist Route’s end credits?

Sans said he remembered the Surface, but… What exactly was it like? If it wasn’t part of the game’s used graphics, what use would there have been for anyone to make these additional maps at all? Was there something important she was missing here…?

 

“i heard mount ebott’s somewhere in california, if i remember correctly… don’t take my word for it, though.” Sans immediately answered without giving it much thought. Then he quickly turned his gaze back towards Charlie and added: “either way, uh, don’t search your california. won’t work.”

 

That last sentence only took a guttural huff from the young human it was directed to.

 

“Seriously. You’re really all taking us for idiots, aren’t you? Who do **_you_** even think you are with that stupid costume, “Skeletonymous” or something?”

 

For an instant he looked actually mad, but for the next, he actually lost focus and scrunched up his expression again into that of a man who so desperately needed sleep to the extent that he was struggling to think straight, but who was absolutely determined to obtain his answers.

“Unless it’s ‘Sansnymous’? Sans-onymous? Sanonymous? … Nah, that sounds dumb. I need coffee.”

 

Oh stars what a dork. Somebody just give him a bed and a pillow please. And for the love of everything keep him away from that percolator at all costs.

 

“what the heck is he talkin about?” Cue confused Sans noises, of course. Poor innocent monsters preserved from human culture and all that.

 

Dawn sighed. “Please don’t ask.”

 

“at least he knows about undertale, after all.” he whispered, hopefully quietly enough so that Charlie wouldn’t hear.

 

“Only the cringe part.” she deadpanned. “You should leave before he says something you’re gonna regret.”

 

The skeleton visibly hesitated with great reluctance, but thankfully he eventually gave a small resigned nod and left the screen, then the room. Maybe he would even teleport out of the house, who knows.

Anyway. Turning back towards her phone and the picture of his brother, she took a deep, but unamused breath.

She was, very and simply, done.

 

“Look, Charlie. You want the truth? I’m gonna give you the truth. Wait right there. Just stop memeing. And _put that down_.” she hurriedly added, pointing accusingly at the gigantic coffee mug he was bringing closer and closer to his mouth. “You’re gonna need some real rest after this.”

 

Without giving it more thought, she stomped her way out of the basement. The only question was, did she have a plan? Well, not really. But by this point, did it even matter?

 

As soon as she arrived in the living room, she found a familiar yellow lizard sitting on the couch, ironically sipping her own cup of coffee in peace. Since her stomping entrance was not of the discreet kind, Dawn’s presence was immediately revealed, and although she remained silent due to her mouth being probably full, the scientist’s curiosity was made obvious thanks to the spark in her eyes.

Perfect. She had her attention. The teenager flashed her friend a bright smile full of hope. “Oh hey, Al! Maybe you could help me, I’ve been trying to tell that dork of a bro where _exactly_ I am.”

 

It all happened in an instant. The coffee mug went flying to the ceiling and then finished its parabolic trajectory on the floor, the spit-take was instantaneously followed by a shriek that sounded exactly like the squeaking of a mouse, and Dawn discovered that Alphys was able to jump like a kangaroo and excuse herself by reaching the kitchen from the couch in a single jump.

Oh, and, the kitchen door was slammed shut, of course. Just in case that detail was not obvious enough as the perfect conclusion of this daring escape.

Abscond she wanted, and abscond she did. She sure aced that ancient art taught by the instincts of survival.

 

All in all: colloquially speaking, Alphys had merely and very simply noped out of the situation.

 

 _… Thank you for reminding me that you can always count on your friends when you need them, Alphys._

 

As soon as the kitchen door slammed shut, a concert of hysteric yelps started, composed of sentences of the same caliber as _“ Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND!?”_ and _“ You couldn’t even let me know before doing that in my back?”_, the latter of which was immediately countered with _“ the same way you could’ve given me a heads up ‘bout the snowdin town residents coming back.”_ The two monsters seemed too invested in their argument to realize that the kitchen door was not an isolation strong enough to fully muffle their respective scolding.

 

“What just happened?” the elder brother asked, annoyed and uninterested but nonetheless confused. “I couldn’t see anything. It sounded like you gave someone a heart attack or something.”

 

“… Never mind.” she grumbled between her teeth. “I’ll just find something else.”

 

If she could not find help from inside…

Well, going out was out of the question, obviously. But did she really need to get out at all?

She approached the main windows of the living room from the side and carefully took a sneak peek outside. They were far, but monsters were visible.

 

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but that’s not gonna work.” her brother cynically commented.

 

She completely glued her phone’s screen to the window. And then she waited.

This had to work. Please work. Please please _please_ don’t be a complete idiot.

 

“So what is this, a convention? A metal concert? A hippie cult thingy?”

 

“Dude, what do you think this is, the _seventies_? Just get real already! This is all real, I swear!”

 

“I AM getting real, _you_ need to get real!”

 

Okay, now this is just getting sad. Sad and boring.

 

“I told you already, I can’t see shit with whatever kind of crappy reception you got.” As annoyed and done as he was, at least the big brother had the decency to at least try to help her make her case by pointing out the current flaws in her plan. “If you want to show me anything, you’re gonna need to make it clear.”

 

It didn’t mean that his friendly advice could be of any help, though. “Well I’d love to, trust me, but that’s going to be tough. If I get out, I’m dead.”

 

“Metaphorically.”

 

“Literally.”

 

She heard the repeated sounds of fingers smashing a keyboard. She face-palmed.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Googling the convention panels of the month. There can’t be too many locations to check out, and trust me, we ARE going to find you, Dawn.”

Darn. It really _does_ run in the family!

 

The teenager pulled her phone back to her face so she could both see her brother and give him the most serious glare she could afford to give.

 

“Charlie, I’m serious! Just drop it already!”

 

“Or what?” he huffed annoyingly. “Your cosplayer friend’s gonna give me a _‘bad time’_ or something?”

 

She gasped. Oh no he didn’t.

 

… Okay, things are getting _way_ too out of hand. As much fun as it could be to see Sans’s reaction to lines like these, there’s a limit to everything. This was a terrible idea since the start.

 

“… I _will_ let you know that you are _very_ lucky I told him to leave because you have _no idea_ how much you wouldn’t have wanted to say that to his face.” she muttered slowly and with a mixture between fear and freezing coldness. “Look I _know_ I’m gonna sound crazy when I say this, but you _need_ to trust what you see and…”

 

Dawn froze. Eyes wide open, staring with horror and a mixture between shock and fascination, mouth gaping, breathless. If the quality of the video weren’t so low, Charlie could have seen with more clarity and certainty that her blood soon drained from her face as she became pale like the snow he had vaguely seen outside.

 

Then, her lips trembling as much as her cracking terrified voice, she uttered actual words:

 

“I-I need to go.”

 

His response was as immediate as futile:

 

“WHAT? _Oh_ no, you’re not going anywhere. You’re gonna tell me where you are _right now_ , and I’m gonna pick you up— wait, Dawn, are you listening to me right now?! Dawn don’t you **_dare_** hang up on m—”

 

She hung up.

Her legs threatened to let her fall when she dashed and glued her back to the wall right next to the large window. Did she really see what she thought she had seen? Her small dozen of seconds of staring swore that their testimony was correct. But even now, she could hardly believe it. There was no way. How could he be here?!

 

Still attempting to convince herself that the fog could have fooled her, she poked her nose and sneaky eyes away from her hiding place as little as possible, just enough for her to be able to take another look outside.

 

Sans’s house was, as displayed in the game, situated at the furthest outskirts of Snowdin Town; even more than what she had first thought. Instead of being close to random houses and just being coincidentally at the border, this house was definitely standing at a distance from the rest of the town.

 

This was what had allowed Sans’s and Grillby’s dispute to be left vastly unnoticed by the faraway bystanders…

And this was what, in this exact moment, allowed Dawn to witness this giant silhouette walking slowly towards the town, gliding silently among the dense fog that had mysteriously raised during the last few minutes and had quickly surrounded the area.

 

It was alone. It was silent. It was tall; hung over, due to the density of the fog and the harshness of the cold, but still advancing with a certain presence; a regal presence.

That was all she needed to know.

 

She barged in the kitchen at high speed. The two monsters stopped their arguing to stare in shock. She was panting.

Alphys may have mistakenly interpreted the human’s expression for a sign of anger or betrayal towards her previous act of bailing, judging by her nervous words:

 

“L-listen Dawn, I-I’m sorry for freaking out earlier, but you need to understand that contacting your family and telling them e-everything is—”

 

“ _No time!_ ” the teenager blurted out in panic. “Guys. I s-saw Asgore. J-just outside.”

Dead silence. Sans froze in place, while the lizard started trembling like a golden leaf in autumn.

Alphys was the first to recover enough from the shock to regain her ability to use her voice.

 

“Th-that d-doesn’t make a-a-any sense. W-what would he be doing here? U-unless your friend…” She was looking at Sans. No way…

 

“You think Grillby snitched on us!?”

 

“grillbs? impossible. can’t think about it.” The poor skeleton was shaking his skull frantically, filled with what only appeared to be traces of obvious yet painful denial. “dawn. are you _sure_ it was him?”

 

“Ten feet tall goat guy with a cape and a trident?” She was panting and stuck on the verge of hyperventilation. “Yeah. Pretty sure.”

 

He had brought his signature weapon along with him. Whatever reason he had come for, he meant business. Definitely human business.

The more she wanted to reminisce her mental images and convince herself that it was a mistake, the more obvious it became. She had never heard of any other monsters still alive who could follow that description.

 

Sans’s phone buzzed. In a second it was open in his hand and displaying a single message:

 

[ FROM: Grillby — 02:44 PM ]  
The king is here

 

Yeah. They figured. Still nice to get a heads up that at least their newest team member had not betrayed them as soon as he was left without their supervision.

 

But this only raised a different question.

 

If Grillby was not the one who sent the alert, then who?

Read via Screenshots Here (full formatting but may encounter loading issues)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending of this chapter has been rewritten so many times, you have no idea. The real tricky fact was that the details of its ending did not even matter, but somehow, this is what made it so hard to write. Anything that happened before Grillby's text did not matter. Quite a bit harsh for a plot-driven story.  
> Especially when, despite everything, even the most pointless, minor details, will come back eventually to bite them in the back.
> 
> On another note, I recently discovered a wonderful Discord server: The Fanfic Paradise! Undertale readers and fanfiction authors alike are welcome, as long as harmony remains. Here's a free invite! https://discord.gg/b9ZTyx (I'm sadly not able to create long-term invites, but I'll edit/send you other links if needed, just ask for it)  
> And since there's also the AO3 collection, you can always check out this link [right here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/FanficParadiseCol/profile) \o/  
> If you ever wanted to chat with me on a more regular basis, here's a good place where you can do so easily! And, of course, if you're looking for great fanfics, you can find other works and their authors there as well ;D


	10. Act 1, Scene 5.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! And sorry for disappearing during the entirety of the summer. At least, I've been productive during that time! I just didn't have access to enough internet to post any chapters properly hahaha. On the good news side, this means that chapter 11 is already in the stage of final editing, so although I'd like to wait a bit before posting it, you shouldn't have to wait for too long.
> 
> On a different note, you'll notice that I changed how the chapters are posted now! You have two links, that'll just redirect you to this page, but show the text. A little like a "spoiler" tag! The goal is that one link will give you access to the screenshots of the chapter, as usual... And the other one is for those who don't like images or are afraid that they won't load properly! It's going to be plain text, with some basic AO3 coding. So the formatting isn't there in its full glory, but it should be good enough. It's just that editing it is a huge pain, but eh, as long as it's worth it.  
> Of course, if you prefer reading on Google Drive or tumblr, the external links are still here too ;D So, that being said, I hope you can enjoy this long chapter! Because the next one, the Act I finale, will be even longer. Arc finales gotta be memorable, after all.

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 5.2

###  [» Read the PDF version here! «](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mNIfWafEUO-xiGXyJT7qMLO4fT7489tq/view)

###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/187163272537/act-i-scene-52)

* * *

This is the main index where you can choose which way you wish to read the chapter.

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Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


* * *

Heavy footsteps landed in the snow with concern and weariness, but also with patience and regal wisdom.

 

Asgore, the King of Monsters, turned around to address one last polite smile at the subject who had graciously brought him to his destination; and hurriedly yet kindly, he offered the ferryman some gold coins from his pocket.

 

Aaron blinked at the unexpected gesture, but gladly accepted the tip and thanked him gratefully. Maybe he would have thought of adding a wink at the end of his sentence, but he restrained himself when he reasoned that it probably would have been inappropriate.

 

“Should I wait for your return?”

 

“No, no, it is alright.” the king assured. “I would not want for you to stay in the cold for this long. Besides, you must have some more important matters to attend to in Waterfall, do you not?”

 

As an answer, the semiaquatic monster merely gave a slow, respectful nod; then, after bidding the King a safe trip to the town, he let his boat drift off the coast and glide along the current, back towards his home area.

 

Asgore took a deep, freezing breath. No going back.

His steps left heavy imprints in the snow, but the fog made him unaware of this fact and would have rendered it useless to anyone trying to follow his tracks from a distance. Was the fog always so thick and opaque, though? As clear as the air was near the river, it quickly became difficult to distinguish anything but ghastly silhouettes after hardly one minute of walk inside the lands.

 

It was fortunate that he had a good memory of the place’s layout, even after spending more than a month without visiting it. The outlines of the main town soon appeared before him, exactly where he expected them to be.

 

Strangely, but also as one could expect, his arrival followed the exact same routine as his previous visits had installed.

More than half of the town’s inhabitants had vanished since his last visit; yet, somehow, in this instant, it almost appeared as if nothing had happened at all. As if the presence or absence of those now long gone in the crowd welcoming him had never mattered in the first place.

Just as stated above. It was eerie; but largely foreseeable. You always welcome your King the same way, after all; no matter the pains your people have suffered.

 

This is a part Asgore wished he did not have to see. Certainly, seeing his people suffer was a sight he could hardly bear; but seeing them hide their pain from him and welcome him with looks of surprised awe and rushed cheers because he was coming unannounced… was worse than anything. His people cared for their King so much.

They deserved a better King. They had needed a protector, and in times of need, where was he? He had not heard their cries of help until it was far too late.

 

After he had let his people down so harshly and with such dire consequences, how could they still support him?

 

This was why he was now present in this very town.

Mind you, he could never fix his mistakes, nor fully atone for his past crimes. But, hopefully, he could give his people the protector they so desperately needed.

And if what he had been told was true, a protector was required to attend to his duty in this very moment.

“Welcome, Your Majesty.” a monster formally saluted him as soon as he stopped in the middle of the village square. “What can we do for you?”

 

As per usual, the burgundy haired frog-like monster already had pen and notebook in hand, and, unsurprisingly, a lit cigarette around (Asgore pretended not to have noticed her throw it away as soon as she had seen him). No matter the event, she was always the first to know; rather fitting for the woman whose primary occupation was to share the news to the rest of the Underground.

 

“Ah, Lady Garf. I am glad to see you here.” he returned the greeting with all honesty. “I need you to gather the neighborhood and maintain the crowd calm, if possible. I am afraid the news I was given cannot wait for an article to be written and distributed; not when it can be given firsthand.”

 

Not wasting a moment, his subject swiftly but respectfully nodded, before following his request without question. In an instant, the woman had started running around strategically and calling out to every monster she met, gathering a majority around the plaza and ordering the most athletic and influent of the remaining citizens to help her warn everyone else. The efficiency of her organized actions proved how much she knew both the town and its inhabitants like the back of her hand, and with how much precision she was able to put this knowledge to good use.

 

Seeing her in action, the King couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea that the infamous “number one word-search creator (and solver) in the entire Underground”, besides being the champion of crosswords, could also be the master of crossroads…

 

… It sounded funnier before he actually put it into words. Tori would have found a much better way to make this play of words actually amusing.

 

In less than ten minutes, the entire small town in its near entirety was present on the plaza and ready to listen.

“My dear friends,” he started, “I have gathered you here because I was warned of a potential danger. Now, I do not wish to alarm you; but if the dire news I have been given are verified, you must be prepared to defend yourselves.”

 

Asgore couldn’t help but maintain an anxious moment of silence, reluctant again to actually reveal said “dire news” for fear of causing an uproar; panicking could only worsen the situation, after all. He trusted his people and knew that they were aware of this fact, and he knew that the trust and teamwork capabilities of his subjects had saved them all during multiple past events; he had always been grateful to realize times and times again how ready they were to handle most emergencies…

But a merciless human child was not “most emergencies.”

 

His people were at the edge of their nonexistent seats. He could not bear to make them wait any longer.

 

“I have been told…” He took one last deep breath. “that a human has been spotted in this area.”

 

A wave of gasps and quickly repressed cries of shock resonated in the crowd; but soon the heavy silence came back and took over the last few voices who ever dared break it in the first place. The King saw parents shielding their children, monsters exchanging mutual glances and looks of fear… But the murmurs quickly died down, and soon all eyes were turned once again towards him.

His subjects were so much stronger and wiser than he could ever wish for. Here he was, lacking faith in those who consistently put all their faith in him… What a king he was. He was so proud of them, and all at the same time, so ashamed of not being able to live up to their greatness.

 

Lady Garf was the first who dared take a step forward and break the silence; despite all the respect she maintained towards the main figure of authority, she felt the need to question his claims nonetheless:

 

“Please pardon my doubting, but that is impossible.” she stated with as much confidence as she could muster, but with a tone that nonetheless betrayed some part of irrational denial. “How could a human be here? Wouldn’t we have seen it through the cameras?”

 

Well, thank you for your words, but we all expected this kind of defense to come from someone else. Now, what could he be doing…? Oh, _there_ he is.

 

Finally, Grillby walked out of his pub at a fast pace and joined the commotion, as if somehow he had managed not to notice it sooner. Then again, this is what most observers would have thought; the keenest eyes could have spied him surreptitiously pocketing his cell phone a split second before he left.

 

Since he had missed the beginning of the conversation and hardly anyone around him payed any attention to his late arrival, nothing stopped the ongoing debate and soon another monster advanced from the crowd to add his own thoughts:

 

“There’s one right at the exit of the Ruins and another in the main crossroad!” an orange demon-like monster supported. “Even if they managed to avoid the cameras in the area, there is no way a human could have gotten past the one filming the Ruins’ door without being seen.”

 

“I can confirm that.” a scarfed mouse went in. “I’ve been keeping an eye on all the cameras in the area, and nothing’s changed. Nobody went out of the Ruins.”

 

Asgore maintained his silence, but gave a weak, somewhat reassured smile, and nodded slowly. It seemed as if this information and simple contradiction could by itself be enough to convince him; and, after all, who did he trust more? His subjects, of course. Especially the ones who knew the field and lived in it more than he did. What he heard was still a mere rumor, after all; nothing more.

 

Still… Soon a rabbit teenager offered a new theory when he cried in realization:

“Wait a minute! So, if no human could have fallen through the Ruins, but someone DID see one, then...”

 

The deduction clicked in everybody’s minds all at once. There was _one_ possibility for a human to have avoided the cameras: if it just so happened that the human already knew of their existence, at least regarding the ones stationed in the rest of the Underground.

The one located at the entrance of the Ruins ensured that it was completely impossible for anyone to enter or exit the Ruins without being spotted, since it was the only way; but it did not prevent a different scenario. It simply involved the premise that instead of a freshly new human…

 

The rabbit’s dark implications were not only uttered with a shuddering voice, but they also quickly caused an uproar in the rest of the crowd. Cries of _“ They were here the whole time!”_, _“ What if it wasn’t actually dead?”_ and _“ We’re doomed!”_ resonated all around the dumbfounded King, who desperately tried to bring his audience back to its previous state, quiet and ready to listen, but who failed to do so for at least twice the time he would have wished.

 

Grillby’s darkest theories were confirmed as he realized that Asgore’s presence was far from coincidental, but that instead, _he already knew_.

 

Part of him felt like he should care more than he felt in this present time. He did worry for that teenager, and he certainly worried for Sans, but… Maybe he just didn’t know the full extent of what truly was at stake. They were supposedly stuck in a time loop, after all; maybe this one… just wasn’t the right one? Sans would still have the next time to try again, wouldn’t he?

 

Obviously, he did not wish for that to happen. He did not even have the slightest idea of what would happen to every single person he knew if this timeline did not end well. It had been implied that the universe would simply rewind itself due to the game’s influence, but what if things went differently, unbeknownst to everyone?

This timeline had to be the right one. He really, _really_ hoped it could still be. But then… How could _anyone_ get past Asgore? Was this the moment to let the truth shine? Did he have any chance to convince anyone at all…?

 

“Now, now, please remain calm!” the King ordered for the umpteenth time. Thankfully, this one was successful. “We are all afraid of what could happen if these rumors were true, but panicking will only lead us to our doom. I am here to shed light on these claims. You all know the saying: prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Please stay calm and ready to defend yourselves… But do not give up hope. Whether a human is hiding here or not, whether it is the same human as the one from last month or not... I can assure you that I will ensure your protection. Your fear is justified; but do not let it consume you. Last time, the human took us by surprise. Now... Maybe we can ensure the advantage of the number.”

 

This was bad. Really bad.

 

“Now, if any of you have seen anything out of the ordinary recently, no matter how small; please do not keep it secret. We should gather as much information as we can get.”

 

“I believe Sans has been staying here on multiple occasions during the past few weeks.” Lady Garf reminded. “He has been staying here the longest and I trust that he is quite observant. If anything happened in our absence, he is the only one who could have noticed it.”

 

… _Aaaand_ he should have held that thought for a bit longer. Things could always get so much worse in just an instant.

He dared pray that none of his neighbors would mention…

 

“Speaking of him, didn’t he get in an argument with Grillby or something?”

… The Angel really had deliberately cursed his luck today.

 

“Well, I don’t know if you were arguing, but it almost looked like it earlier.” the orange demon quickly corrected his statement, but he was still deeply puzzled. “I thought I even saw bullets at some point?”

 

Thankfully, Grillby had anticipated that last question and prepared a hopefully somewhat plausible excuse. “Oh, right. In fact, Sans was looking for a sparring partner; after spending so long in his basement with nobody around, who could blame him for wanting to exercise with a friend?”

 

Well, admittedly, he should have expected the rows of widened perplexed and skeptical eyes to target him in sync after saying something as ridiculous as this.

 

“Sans? Exercising?” A pair of eyebrows raised almost a full inch above their usual location. “Now I’ve heard everything.”

 

“Well, I never saw him practice,” another went in, thankfully in his defense this time, “but if the rumors are true and he’s really the one who stopped the last human, that must’ve come from somewhere, right?”

 

“I can confirm that the last human is very dead, and that only Sans was present at the time. I participated in the investigation and wrote the article, after all.” Thank you, Lady Garf. Thank you.

 

The first monster hesitated, but then he nodded, visibly satisfied with this justification. “That would explain it.”

 

This went a lot easier than he had hoped, and he certainly would not complain. Maybe there would not be any real need for the truth to come out just yet, in the end.

 

But then… A child’s voice echoed from the back rows of the crowd, indignant and distrustful.

“If it’s dead, where’s the soul?”

 

The child was quickly silenced by one of his parents, but the seeds had been planted. The burgundy haired woman repeated that the human had been certified to be “undoubtedly dead”, but this was not enough as an answer. Some murmurs started to argue that Sans could not realistically have had the power to kill a human anyway when everyone else failed. Others responded that if that had not happened, then how could Sans still be alive, and the human missing; unless, of course, Sans could have for some completely stupid reason faked the human’s death before taking it in.

 

This last conspiracy theory was so undoubtedly absurd that it sounded largely stupid enough to work, some whispered.

 

“The human’s body was retrieved and buried long ago.” the King thankfully confirmed. “I would have personally noticed if they somehow were still alive and escaped their coffin.”

 

This quickly tamed the crowd and silenced the last claims.

 

“I came after hearing the smallest of rumors, because I did not want to take any potential risks. However, as Lady Garf demonstrated, it appears that not only the last human cannot be a threat anymore, but that it is impossible for any other human to have made their way in the Underground at all.” he continued. “As such, my advice still stands. The rumor may be false today; but do not forget it. One day, it may become true.”

 

Various gestures and words of agreement resonated in the crowd, reassured and confident. Asgore took a deep breath before apologizing for coming and scaring his subjects in vain, but nobody held him responsible. On the contrary, many offered to let him stay for the celebration they had planned for the evening, or to just host him for the time of tea and various refreshments before his leave.

Seeing here his perfect opening for a perfect distraction, naturally, Grillby offered everyone present to take said refreshments at his pub; thankfully, the main target found the idea charming and generous, and once the King has agreed to something, nobody will voice any opposition.

 

A good dozen monsters followed behind him as he walked back towards his eponymous building, the King included. He took the orders, and as soon as he reached the kitchen, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and typed:

 

[ TO: Sans — 03:27 PM ]  
False alarm he doesn’t think there’s any human here anymore. I’m keeping him and others busy.

 

Good. That should do it.

Now… He just had forty-seven orders to take care of. He was so fortunate his interns were still here to help.

* * *

“... Please pardon my indiscretion, but did you say something about Sans?”

 

Asgore gave the fire elemental the brightest, most blissfully oblivious smile the world could ever create.

 

“Why, yes. I was just saying that I will certainly pay him a visit, while I am here. Alphys told me that she also intended to join him today! It would be the perfect opportunity to salute their efforts.”

 

“............ Certainly, Sire.” he nodded.

 

Grillby, who had previously sent multiple texts to keep Sans updated on the situation, promptly went back on his previous texted claims that they were in the clear.

 

[ TO: Sans — 04:13 PM ]  
NEVERMIND HE’S COMING

* * *

“… It’s still Asgore. He’s a softie. Right? Isn’t there any way we could, just, tell him everything? Couldn’t you guys find a way to let him in on this?”

 

The nervous laughs Dawn obtained were enough to let her know that, no, they could not. Part of her wanted to ask for some actually worded and detailed explanation as to why, but she quickly rationalized that, no matter how frustrating it was to remain stuck in her state of confusion, there were much more pressing matters at hand.

 

“okay. anyone got _actually feasible_ ideas?”

 

Although the skeleton’s question seemed to be addressed to both girls present, the conversation he engaged was clearly meant to evolve between the two monsters and ignored the human’s presence almost entirely.

 

“She can’t stay here.” Alphys assured, stating what was supposed to be obvious to her in order to give the brainstorming session a stable start. “He’ll find her for sure, sooner or later.”

 

Her only answers were a pair of raised eyebrows from Dawn’s part, and a firm nod from Sans’s. So she continued:

 

“I can take her somewhere else while you distract Asgore.”

 

“that’d be cool, thanks.”

 

He stopped his pacing to close his eye-sockets and concentrate for a bit, and just a few seconds later, he opened them again and threw whatever object had mysteriously materialized inside of his hand that was definitely not there a minute ago. A bit surprised at first but repressing it just as quickly, Alphys raised her clawed hands and caught the item without flinching. Only then could Dawn realize that it was a set of keys.

 

Sans only had one more thing to say:

 

“third one on the left of the rocks.”

 

There was a sharp nod. The lizard scientist was obviously not going to question anything regarding this whole thing, from what these keys were for to how Sans had acquired them or whether or not he had just stolen them from someone else. Priorities, probably.

 

“We’ll see you later.” she assured gravely. “You know the place.”

Dawn looked up from her phone (she had been distracted for a few seconds when she had realized that after her WhatsApp call with her brother, the message she had tried to write to her friend had been sent as it was, whether before the call or right after it ended due to her mistakenly pressing a few more buttons in her panic). One distraction leading to another, she dared ask candidly:

 

“… So we’re going somewhere, but without you?” she addressed Sans in confusion. “Wouldn’t it be faster if you just, teleported us there?”

 

“it’d sure be faster, but. two things.” And he raised two bony fingers to support his point. “i need to stay here when he comes and probably cover for alphys as well, and i need to stay behind because if something goes wrong, i’m the one who’s more likely to catch up and find you.”

 

“Also, there’s no way we’re leaving you without supervision where we’re going. Game or not, you’d get lost in no time and it’d take hours to find you.”

 

The teenager wanted to ask the most obvious question, that was to say _where_ they were going, but the scientist merely took her arm and pulled her towards the kitchen while saying that they had no time and needed to leave immediately.

 

“Oookay, so later then?” she tried to send a quick wave to Sans, who simply acknowledged it with a lazy but concerned nod.

 

“yeah, good luck. and al?”

 

“I’ll keep you updated.” she assured, waving her phone as proof.

 

“great. i prolly won’t read your texts while he’s here, but i’ll try.”

 

And with that, the kitchen door closed behind them.

Dawn wondered why they were entering the _kitchen_ of all places, while they were supposed to leave the house, but quickly the solution to this inconsistency offered itself under the form of another inconsistency: here laid, in a corner, a back door that led them to a narrow snowed path hidden by a row of large, dark pine trees.

 

So _here_ was that previously mysteriously missing access to the back of the house, after all. But why was it linked to the _kitchen_? The game only ever made a connection between the hypothetic back door and Sans’s basement.

 

That was… weird. Was the game making it a shortcut between the back door and the workshop by hiding the more complex path she would need to follow here, by entering the kitchen and exiting it to take another door under the stairs in the living room? She wondered.

 

Maybe it was all a trick of perspective. She had found out that the mezzanine in the real life version of the house could easily access the balcony on the upper floor, after all. The game made it absurdly impossible for some reason.

 

Either way. Dawn tried to bury her head inside her shoulders as if it could hide her face, as she kept following her yellow friend. Thankfully, it appeared that she knew enough the area, or they were just lucky to never meet anyone else. After a half minute of fast but quiet walking, the two girls reached the first area devoid of trees…

And most importantly, they reached water.

 

The first surprise was that instead of meeting a single hooded figure standing on a lonely boat, there was no living soul in sight, and about a dozen docked boats left without supervision. A look to the side of the land, and Dawn spotted a wooded cabin with a large sign reading simply: _“boat rental.”_

Well. _That_ was self-explanatory.

 

“Quick, it’s that one.” Alphys whispered as she silently dashed to the ship she was pointing to, the set of keys firmly kept inside a tense fist.

 

There was no objection; in an instant, they were both near their target and Dawn hurriedly but carefully stepped in.      . At first she thought that this place was supposed to be the Snowdin spot from which the River Person would take Frisk, but a more thorough look at the surroundings and a better analysis of the path they had taken from Sans’s house convinced her that instead, this had to be an entirely different location; one that was, fascinatingly, supposed to be completely inaccessible to the player — not only by being unreachable, but by being entirely impossible to notice even by staring at the boundaries of the game’s map.

 

All things considered, it was undoubtedly cool that she was now able to access parts of the map that no player even knew existed.

 

While Alphys took the commands at the front (instead of a mere wooden boat, this one was apparently motorized), the human took cover under a tarp that somebody had conveniently left there, whether by chance or by the result of Sans shenanigans. When she noticed, the lizard lauded her smart move with a short hum of approval. Hardly a second later, Alphys turned the key, and they were off.

 

Never had she imagined that there could be more than just one boat in the Underground; most fanfictions she had read only assumed that, just like in the game, there only ever was one boat and one River Person in the entire cave. Then again, not only having more boats for everyone’s daily trips made more sense, but in this very moment, they were very fortunate that they could find their own; they wouldn’t have to walk in the open for much longer.

 

As much as she enjoyed the idea of walking through and discovering the Underground in all its details, now was simply not the time. Besides, what she had quickly learned from her small hike the day before was that the last portion of the Snowdin area that would lead to Waterfall was not only _much_ longer than the game made it look, it was also devoid of any place to hide if they so needed. Being able to bypass most of the dangerous parts of their trip was a blessing.

Dawn was very, _very_ tempted to look out and admire the outside world while they were sailing through it; but the more rational part of her mind reminded her to keep her eyes below the blanket and to focus her efforts on being as still and invisible as she could. Her life could very well depend on it, after all. Tourism would be for another time.

 

After what felt like an eternity, the silence was broken beyond the simple growls of the motor sloshing the calm water.

 

“We’re entering Waterfall. You’d better grab something steady and brace yourself.”

 

Brace herself? For what? Dawn couldn’t see it, but Alphys pressed a button, and the consequence this mere gesture had was what let her gather new clues regarding the answers she was seeking: the boat shook wildly for a few instants, and although it soon came back to a stable path, it appeared that it was not relying on any solid ground anymore. Unable to stop her curiosity and confusion, the teenager gave up and peeked a tiny glance out of the tarp.

Soon her eyes doubled in side.

 

“We’re _FLYING_ …?!”

 

Although she had managed to retain her exclamation to the level of a shocked whisper, the lizard shushed her hurriedly, and she apologized for her momentary lack of prudence and discretion. Thankfully though, her scientist friend still found the time and opportunity to explain.

 

“News flash, in case you hadn’t noticed: Waterfall has waterfalls. Everywhere. It’s completely impossible to navigate with a regular boat, especially if we want to get to the third floor.” Alphys couldn’t help but take a moment to turn a smug grin towards her interlocutor and add: “Looks like the game doesn’t show you everything, after all.”

 

No. No, it did not.

 

“I never imagined you’d know how to fly something like this…” she confessed.

 

The lizard repressed a snort as if she had heard the stupidest of assumptions.

“And who do you think built those rocket-fueled babies? Santa?” she laughed proudly. “… Well, I just invented the idea. I didn’t build all of them.”

 

Dawn pushed her head just high enough above the tarp to send her a full look. “Dude. That’s amazing.”

 

“… Undyne wanted me to design them with sails acting like wings, like in those movies with pirates and flying ships or something.” She repressed a bittersweet smile. “That would’ve been a lot cooler, but absolutely impracticable. Too bad we had to settle for regular rockets instead.”

 

Oof… Not the best timeline to reminisce, huh?

 

“… If it can make you feel better, boats with rockets are still super cool.”

 

Alphys shrugged slightly, but she was already turning her back to her and fully focusing on the commands. “Haha, thanks. It doesn’t mean I have a lot of experience maneuvering them, though. So bear with me.”

 

The human nodded and ducked again, pulling the tarp back in front of her so she could go back to full stealth mode.

 

“Still, if you don’t mind I, uh, didn’t ask before, but— where are we going exactly? Is that a place I know?”

 

The monster took a minute of silence before she looked around them, ensuring that nobody was anywhere nearby.

 

“If I say ‘Garbage Dump’, does that ring any bells?”

 

Oh. That suddenly made a lot of sense. “ _Oooh_. Yeah. I probably should’ve seen it coming, in retrospect.”

 

Of course the best place for hiding, if you had Alphys on your side, was going to be the Dump. The game assured that she knew the field like the back of her hand, and it wasn’t hard to imagine that this kind of place would be full of hiding spots. If she had allegedly taught Bratty and Catty how to search the place and find the best junk and gone on field trips with them on various occasions, it was pretty telling that in this present situation, going to such place was going to give them a very serious advantage.

That, and, given how this was the first place Alphys would think of bringing Frisk to during their mock-date and according to what her lab entries claimed, this simply was her favorite place to hang out, period. She should have been able to predict that this would be the destination she’d choose for their (hopefully temporary) escape.

 

After a long, almost silent wait, the boat touched solid ground once more. The lizard invited Dawn to carefully get out of her hiding place and follow her, and she obliged without a word. As soon as she jumped out, she realized why it felt like the boat had indeed reached solid ground: just like the game showed it, the area was submerged, but all at the same time, there was hardly enough depth to the water to reach her knees. The water was cold and dirty, but that was exactly as one should expect from this place.

 

Overall, the one thing the game had preserved was what allowed the scenery to look so innocently casual and almost as beautiful and entrancing as the rest of the locations in the Underground; but now that she actually was standing there instead of looking at it from the distance of a screen, reality was quick to remind her of the reason why this was called a garbage dump:

 

It was, obviously, filled with garbage. Her nose was very quick to catch up with that fact.

 

One thing she found herself thinking about was that monster food was known for being of magical nature, granting it with many advantages; one of which was that it would never spoil.

But, then again, where did all that garbage come from? Humans. And regular matter, contrary to magic, was pretty sensitive to the various chemical and biological reactions induced by either the dioxygen present in the air, by microorganisms, and many other things. This… probably wasn’t healthy. Had she been vaccinated against tetanus?

Whether she had been or not (hopefully she was, she didn’t remember if it was one on the list of those required by the law but it could be), it was not like they really had a choice at this point. She was a human, and she needed to hide for a while. The garbage dump _was_ , strategically speaking, a place where you could hide pretty much anything and then you’d have to spend hours to try and find it again. This was a plan she shouldn’t be complaining about, simply because it seemed like the best option they had for the time being. Her nose would have to suck it up.

 

She wanted to be the hero protagonist? She had to accept the cold reality of getting her hands, and probably more than just her hands, dirty. In the literal sense more than in the metaphorical one, in this specific case.

 

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder. She once heard that humans, like most animals, had their taste buds and sense of smell naturally attuned so that some of the most toxic and unpleasant compounds would taste or smell bad to them, as a warning and deterrence from consuming said compounds. She didn’t know whether it was true, but… Could it be that since monsters were not _too_ easily ill, they did not have that problem? Or was it that Alphys’s not seemingly being bothered by the surrounding smell was just that she had scouted this place for years on a regular basis and was just used to it?

Well, she was stuck in this place and once they found the perfect hiding spot, she would need not to move for a while for the sake of stealth. Don’t judge her for trying to find distractions by pondering pointless questions.

 

“Here. That should do it for now.”

 

What Alphys was pushing her towards was the front half of what, in another time, had been a car. It looked very rusty, it was definitely never going to move again, and they would be very lucky if they managed to just _open_ the doors by any means other than kicking them open with a battering ram at full force, but still: on the bright side, it was surrounded by random, tinier junk, and whatever laid inside was ensured to be very easily hidden from an exterior perspective. In fact, had Alphys not told her where to look, she would have certainly shot a glance without paying the car’s remnants any attention.

 

So. For hiding spot standards? This was the jackpot. They just needed to find their way inside somehow.

 

“Maybe we could find a crowbar around here.” the teenager immediately offered with confidence. Surely if they had found a _car_ of all things, such a common and relatively tiny tool would be even easier to find in comparison.

 

Nonetheless, the scientist firmly shook her muzzle. “No need, I have better than...”

 

There was a light sound nearby. The girls fell silent and a complete stillness engulfed them. The light sounds resumed, but seemed to be far enough away so as to let them think that whoever they belonged to was not necessarily aware of their presence.

 

Still. This was a close call, and as such, some precautions needed to be taken.

 

Alphys pushed the human against the rocky dark wall in a corner, keeping a short but steady arm to block her way, just in case she would have thought of protesting or questioning her judgement. _“ Stay back.”_, she said, as if her action were not enough to convey the message.

If the situation weren’t calling for it, Dawn would have mentally commented on how her serious expression and general demeanor were most probably inspired from the animes she was watching so much.

At least, such expression could only mean one relieving thing: she had a plan. And as an immediate confirmation to this, glowing smithereens started gathering inside the palm of the lizard’s other hand. A bullet? Only one…? No. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Alphys was hardly ever shown using magic by herself, but she definitely had something up her sleeve. Something effective.

 

In the game, Alphys was never explicitly shown using magic. The only visual clue was during her fight as a Lost Soul in the True Pacifist Ending, and during this short fight, she would use the same patterns as Mettaton’s.

What were the components of Mettaton’s patterns? Regular blocks. Lightning-shaped bullets. Flying legs and retractable arms. Disco balls playing with cyan or white lasers. Tiny Mettaton bullets pretending to be Mary Poppins. And most importantly...

 

Bombs.

 

… Stay back indeed.

 

There was a deaf sound, and then a wall of rocks fell, rolling again and again, always creating more sound and dust. When it finally stopped, the room they were in was short one exit way.

 

“... Well. It looks like we won’t get out without Sans’s tricks, after all.”

 

… Which meant, according to what was just said, that there were now no exit left. One minus one meant zero.

There was still a narrow access to upper floors, and maybe even the actual Surface, if Dawn could trust the light she could vaguely see when she would look up in the direction where the waterfalls were coming from. Sadly, they probably did not count as properly accessible exits. On the bright side, though, it meant that at least they would not run out of oxygen to breathe. Assuming that Alphys needed to breathe oxygen, of course, which she could not be sure of. Monster biology was a mystery.

 

Upon looking a little further down the shallow water stream, Dawn saw a single waterfall that seemed to go down to a lower level, contrary to the other ones that came from the upper floors. After asking Alphys about it, though, it was soon revealed that this one would lead them nowhere and only get them even more stuck.

Thankfully, the plan for now was not necessarily to get out of the room. Just to find the perfect hiding place.

 

“So the plan is that I— _we_ hide in the car. And then?”

 

She shrugged. “Let’s focus on getting in first, that’ll be a good start.”

The lizard approached the nearest door of the car wreck, then placed her hands close to the handle; small whitish glows appeared and tried to push through the barely noticeable opening between the door and the rest of the structure, but the result was going to be slow and tedious, at best.

 

About two minutes later, a frustrated pout started to make itself gradually evident on her muzzle every passing second.

She almost started to question whether the rust, or whatever other oxidized alloy that was, was starting to fuse and soldered the door to the rest instead of separating them. That, or it was just that she had a lot of trouble making her bullets both tiny and powerful. Either one or the other she could manage, but both at the same time was definitely trickier than she had anticipated.

 

Another minute, and a bar of solid metal suddenly appeared in her field of vision and violently stabbed the opening near the door. Apparently Dawn had found her long-awaited crowbar, after all.

 

“Okay. In my head, I had pictured things differently.” she sighed in disappointment.

 

“No worries. I mean, you can’t have _all_ the glory.” the teenager joked with a playful grin.

 

Dawn stabbed the car once more, this time fully intending to lodge the bar inside the opening so she could force it open. The lever physics still required from her a stronger force than she had thought, but a combination of perseverance and elbow grease soon paid off.

 

“Don’t be too cocky.” Alphys smirked, although the corners of her mouth were a bit strained. “We both know Undyne would’ve been done with it in just a second.”

 

“She would’ve suplexed the whole car, you mean. Right? Maybe even the entire pile of…”

 

The human’s sentence was never finished, because as soon as she saw what she thought she had seen, her mind instantaneously forgot what she was about to say.

Alphys had blocked the only exit. They had assumed that due to this, aside from Sans’s shortcuts, nobody would be able to enter or leave the room anymore.

 

This assumption could not have been more wrong.

 

She instantly recognized that tiny shy ghost that looked like a white bed sheet with cartoony wet eyes, and the fangirl in her felt the immediate need to stupidly hide the crowbar behind her back and reassure the poor guy that despite their bad luck, they were not in danger:

 

“Wait, Napstab—!”

 

She froze and forced her lips shut, biting them as hard as she could. Alphys sent her the most betrayed and exasperated _“ Are you freaking SERIOUS right now” _look she could muster.

 

She had to find a cover up, and quick.

 

“C-c-coughing! I-I was _coughing_! Y-y-y-you know, ‘Napstachoo’, that’s totally how it goes when you cough, the air is _sooo_ stuffy in this dump and all that, nothing weird here, not like we could’ve ever _met_ before or anything, hahaha, you’d know, right. COUGH COUGH.”

 

Alphys’s face-palm made it look like she was trying her best not to scream _“ Thank GOD this cringey terrible tirade of cheap excuses is over”_ in painfully angry relief. Napstablook stared with giant empty shocked eyes, their small mouth wide open but voiceless.

 

Then the poor innocent ghost became less and less opaque and vanished in half a second.

Dawn wanted to smack herself so hard right now.

 

“They didn’t buy it did they.”

 

The lizard scientist took a deep, deadpanned breath of disappointment. “Did you honestly think that even if they did, they would’ve stayed around?”

 

“… Touché.”

When will she ever learn? Whenever she opens her mouth to talk to someone new, she slips up. It’s only like, the third time around or something.

 

Alphys exhaled a harsh, disappointed sigh.

 

“Well, now we can give up on THAT idea for a hiding spot. Maybe even the whole room is compromised, now.”

 

“… I’m sorry?” the human tried to apologize. In the grand scheme of things, they had been discovered long before she made her stupid mistake, and nothing could have changed that even if she had handled things in a smarter way; but still, they could have done without that second part.

 

The lizard merely brushed off her apology as irrelevant and unnecessary with a literal hand wave. “Just help me find a way out of here.”

 

Another quick glance at what used to be a walkable exit was enough to convince both of them that unless Undyne could be with them suplexing all those boulders, trying to clear the way by themselves would be both tedious and dangerous. Thus, by default, they only had a chance if they tried climbing the waterfalls and reached the upper floors.

 

Dawn wondered if the barrier was still in effect at this location; well, it most probably was, otherwise monsters would have thought of escaping through that entrance, but this only brought another question. Even if they reached the ceiling, would they find another way further in the Underground, or would the barrier be their only exit?

 

… She did not want to think about the dark implications of the latter escape scenario.

 

“Do you think they’re gonna tell Asgore?” she asked while trying to find the best waterfall to climb. One thing was for sure, the opening was too small for the flying boat, and probably too narrow for them to pass through. Given how stuck they were, nobody could blame her for resorting to wishful thinking.

“I don’t know who they’re going to tell, but they’re definitely telling someone.” the monster shrugged heavily. “And if that someone doesn’t end us first, they’re gonna relay the information to the top.”

 

While the teenager walked about, trying to climb or move random piles of garbage around, Alphys had soon stopped her own search and pulled out her phone, texting Sans frantically and asking him for news. She was not getting any answer, but this did not deter her from typing.

 

Thankfully, after more than twenty minutes, he responded. Except that instead of a message, he was actually calling:

 

“Did something happen?” was the first thing Alphys asked fearfully as soon as she picked up.

 

“things were pretty smooth before that ghost showed up and told us that after seein’ a landslide and comin’ to make sure that no one got hurt, they saw you tryin’ to smuggle a human in a car.”

 

Well, turned out that Napstablook went directly to the top, after all. Conveying the news in the span of half an hour was pretty fast, all things considered. Then again, they were a ghost. Phasing through walls made the trip shorter.

 

“Where are you right now?”

 

It was safe to assume that if Sans was talking to her so freely, then Asgore wasn’t around to hear them talking.

 

“waterfall. grillbs an’ i are on our way to the dump.”

 

There was one word in that sentence that _most definitely_ did not belong in the context of ‘escape’ and ‘Waterfall.’

 

“Grillby’s with you?! When— how did that happen? And in Waterfall???”

 

“he came along with the ghost, i didn’t think it through and took him with me when asgore flipped, and we found an arrangement in the meantime. anyway, tell us where you are and we just might make it in one piece.”

“The Dump, L3 east.” Alphys explained instantly. “Just look for the cave-in where you’d normally find the access from the town.”

 

Whatever Sans replied to that, she retorted hastily after listening for just a few seconds, claiming that _“ It seemed like a good idea at first!”_, that she had initially planned for them to make their way to “L2” but that they were busted before that, and that she had absolutely not anticipated that a single bullet from her part would do that much damage, let alone that it would get them stuck in that part of the Dump and that getting to “L2” would only make them even more trapped than they already were.

 

Dawn was only vaguely listening, as she continued to look around and search for anything that could be of any use in their current situation. She already had her recently found crowbar and she did not want to think of actively looking for weapons, but sadly, the more rational and pessimistic part of her mind reminded her that, first, this timeline was meant to be Reset at some point anyway, and second, that given the current circumstances, she did not really have a choice and had better get prepared to defend her life in every way she knew. Even though she _really_ did not want to think of actually hurting anyone, obviously, let alone Asgore. Sure, he was the one who wanted her dead, but… It’s Asgore. He’s a softie! One of the most adorable gentle giants in the universe… Besides, it was his job, but it wasn’t like he _actually_ wanted to kill anyone, right? Was talking really out of the question?

 

Well, in the game, the “Talk” option could only do so much as lower his Attack after persevering for three turns. What did this amount to in regards of effectiveness, a fifty-fifty? Could she possibly call the “#2 Favorite Character” card and get a bonus for being part of his fanclub…? Hahaha. Just kidding. That was just some very fancy wishful thinking.

 

“Dawn. Sans says we should take cover. You’re gonna want to plug your ears.”

 

If the implications of what was to come should have been predictable to her, she did not have the time to realize them before they occurred right before her eyes. Merely a split second after Alphys confirmed on the phone that the way was clear, a ten foot diameter glowing and roaring beam made its way through the thick impenetrable wall of fallen rocks, obliterating every particle caught in its path until, after the light gradually toned down, all that was left was an almost perfectly circular hole, cleanly delimited by parts where the rocks had been either split or melted.

 

Through the other side, Sans quickly stepped on the bottom part of the hole, then jumped down to the girls’ level and walked to them, offering to help Alphys up. He willingly let the human to her gawking, preferring not to comment on her ungracefully hanging jaw.

 

“we need to move. any ideas where to go next?”

 

Alphys had felt his urge to make some random joke about how likely it was that his rescue attempt had awoken every single living (and possibly no-longer-living) soul in the Underground, but he had wisely decided against it for the sake of not wasting time. As such, she quickly offered Hotland as their next destination and followed him back through the hole, with the teenage human right behind her.

 

On the other side stood a giant, nearly six feet tall floating skull, with an innocently dumbfounded Grillby silently sitting on top with crossed legs, waiting for them without question. The skeleton quickly motioned Alphys to climb up as well, before doing so himself.

 

To Dawn, it finally hit her.

 

 _. . . Ooh. Okay. Okay okay okay. So **that’s** what a Gaster Blaster looks like in real life._

 

The always, ever rational and perfectly logical part of her mind finally woke up and, as usual, pretended that it had never fallen asleep by telling her how stupid she was for not figuring it out sooner. _But still_ , the rest of her entire being pleaded with force and absolute indignation due to how outraged and offended it was that her rational part could ever be so unemotional and cold towards such obviously terrifying matter, _just look at that thing, because holy mother of all flipping animes why was it so huge and deadly and oh so very realistically deadlike and—_

 

“dawn, you waitin’ for the entire woshua clan to come and clean up the mess or what? ‘cause they’re not comin, but soon the rest of the town will be.”

 

Well, _there_ was his _“ my blaster woke up every living and dead soul in the underground”_ joke. Maybe he just couldn’t help it and needed to find _one_ moment to break the tension somehow, after so much time and seriousness. Even if his joke’s only purpose was to remind the daydreaming human of said seriousness and of the urgent nature of their situation.

Dawn slowly and nervously turned her head to face him with a pair of distressed eyes, her neck trembling as if the rotation of her head had involved uneven gears forcing that movement to be split into various tinier actions, each step separated from the others by a sudden, painful stop. Her jaw opened a bit more than it already was, but no sound came out of it.

 

 _No no no – didn’t you see what it just did to that wall – you are NOT riding that thing – nope – never – not even if your life depended on it – which it does by the way – but still absoluTELY NOT – ONCE – EVER_

 

Just before Alphys could ask the classic and overly clichéd _“ Dawn,_ _are you okay?”_ , Sans remembered and realized the source of the problem all at once (besides the apparent problem that stood before them and refused to move for some incredibly stupid and suicidal reason). As a result, his disappointed skull became a little bit more sympathetic, but also ten times more impatient and deadpan.

 

“... please don’t tell me you’re havin a phobia episode or whatever it is you call it. you never had one after the first time and _you said you’d be fine_. please don’t start now.”

 

The only response that came out of the teenager’s mouth was a disharmonious voiceless suite of disembodied vowels, which could be translated with much effort to something along the lines of _“sorry I swear I’m trying”_ followed by other beheaded words of similar meaning.

 

Grillby thought of this as the first opportunity he had to speak his mind:

 

“... A ‘phobia’? I don’t think I ever got to hear that one yet.”

 

Sadly for him, it appeared that his friend was not in the mood, as the only thing he uttered to at least acknowledge the question’s mere existence was: “long story.” Then, to Dawn: “look, i don’t know how bad it is, but we don’t have all day. can’t you just keep your eyes closed or something?”

 

Judging by the fact that the human’s eyes were shut at once and that she visibly tried to take a very deep and noisy breath, she was at least listening to him and clearly willing to help, and she most certainly would have actively worked on controlling her tremors and irrational fears all the same even if he weren’t here to urge her to. Still, the effectiveness of her attempts was, at best, debatable.

 

At least the rapidity of the process was, because after the mental countdown of five seconds (more like three and one quarter to be fair), the nearly one-foot-large cyan heart-like shape in her chest started to glow in a deep saturated blue hue; and then her entire self was magically catapulted from the ground with an acceleration that, during the very short amount of time needed to send her flying and landing in Grillby’s lap without either of their consent, became probably stronger than the limit fixed by her respectably absolute lack of g-force tolerance training.

 

Only counting on the bartender’s ability to keep his balance and ensure that his freshly handed baggage would stay grounded as well, not a single more second was wasted and the giant skull dashed away, hovering above water and land alike at high speed. Fortunately for his given mission of the highest importance (or unfortunately for him personally), the baggage was not an inanimate object but a living being, and soon the survival instinct kicked in and assisted him in maintaining the human in place. It was just a minor inconvenience that the solution she adopted was to take hold onto the nearest thing that was _not_ magic floating bone, in order to do so while finding some form of comfort for her constant desperate terror. Under other circumstances, the rational part of Dawn’s mind would have led her to question how she could hug him without burning, or how it was possible to hug him at all; but it appeared that in this very moment, all traces of rationality were entirely gone.

 

The poor fire elemental tried to politely ask the human to let him go, but judging by the closeness of the embrace and the force she was putting in her (paradoxically) eternally shaking arms, one could only assume that she was too deep in her catatonic trance to do so much as acknowledge his words. Upon seeing the pain and shock distorting her fleshy face… Even without knowing the origin of such intense and unexpected reaction, the part of him that was a father could not help but feel at least the need to reassure this terrified child. Because, only then did he fully realize it, this was a child; she was older than his son, true, but even after knowing her for far less than a day, he saw enough hints regarding her young and naïve mentality.

 

He had never considered it before, but just like the previous humans (except for the genocidal video game machine)… this one was a child, just like the others; and just like the others, an entire race was willing to kill her for the mere crime of existing, while she herself was the only one of her kind. Nobody, let alone a child, should ever have to live through this nightmare.

Before he realized it, his left hand went to rest on the human’s shoulder, as he tentatively rubbed his fiery thumb on her shirt. At first she did not move away, and instead tensed even more upon feeling his touch without warning; but soon the calming gesture and overall warmth of his presence slowly soothed her back to, if not reality, at least a more pleasant tranced state. If her embrace weren’t so humanly strong, he would have almost believed that she somehow fell asleep.

After a long moment of silent roaming, Alphys eventually called out to Sans and asked: “You said that a while ago already, but it’s been on my mind ever since, so… What did you mean exactly when you said that Asgore flipped out?” An ounce of skepticism could be seen in her voice and nonexistent eyebrows. “I could see him shocked and confused, of course. But angry…?”

 

Probably because Sans was too busy ‘driving’, Grillby decided to answer on his behalf; besides, contrary to his skeleton friend, he could provide some additional information that only he had been able to witness:

 

“Some citizens suspected that Sans was hiding the human from last month. We proved that it was absurd, but when this ghost arrived, I think they persuaded the King that these rumors were true...” The bartender held his thoughts and sentence for a fugacious moment, lowering his invisible gaze so he could send a subtle nod with his chin towards the fugitive semi-sleeping in his arms: “..... or that something similar happened, at least.”

 

Looking at this human, yet paradoxically innocent and seemingly harmless face, reminded him of how different this specific specimen was; of where she allegedly came from; of what this world allegedly was to her.

 

Thinking back of the phenomena he had witnessed the first time he was teleported in Waterfall… This young girl was supposed to have been a “Player” of this game; and even now, even if she could be considered to be “inside” of the game and just as stuck as they were, she still came from an outside world, seemingly with different rules. Could this mean that she had similar abilities as the ominous flower he had met? She certainly had the “inside knowledge”, but was this enough? Did the universe, in some way, treat her differently due to her intrinsically different nature and origins? Did she already ponder these questions and try to use or “unlock” these abilities in some way…?

“Is something on your mind?” He jerked his flaming head towards the source of this question: Alphys was already cringing as she was asking it, knowing full well how empty this question was but feeling unable to find any better words, and staring at him with a dorky smile. She immediately felt the need to specify: “Apart from, you know. Everything.”

 

That second question provoked a stiff chuckle. “...You could say that again.” he admitted. “Just a few hours ago, I knew nothing. And now, here I am. Following you three in this insanity. After learning that last month was a video game, reality is a lie, and nothing in our life matters.”

 

“… Yeah. That.”

 

She nodded before talking. She said something obvious. She kept nodding for maybe a bit too long. Then she stopped. She pursed her lips. The silence was awkward. She didn’t like the silence. She needed to say something dumb to break the silence.

 

“Who needs problems to keep your mind busy with a world like this, am I right?”

 

A pause.

 

“...Pretty much.”

 

Then again… As much as he wished to avoid thinking too hard about anything anymore, he found his mind roaming among random thoughts and memories, like the giant magic bullet they were riding. And as he reminisced, he felt like he was forgetting something important. Images from the past few hours flew by, and as the idea germinated that he had very certainly forgotten to say something important, somehow he found the dimmest energy to give these memories a decently-thorough search for clues.

The flower, the main plaza, the party at his pub…

 

The party was the closest he had ever been to the King, for as far as he could remember. This also reminded him that at the time, something had caught his interest for an instant: he had brought his trident in case of need, but upon entering… the King’s eye was kept on something else.

 

… Did anyone see what was under his cape?

 

“.........Asgore.” he sputtered spontaneously. “I don’t remember if I specifically mentioned it, but when he arrived in Snowdin, he brought something with him. And if that’s what I think it is..... None of us are going to like it.”

* * *

“My poor friend… This must have been quite the shock for you. There clearly are some matters at work… far beyond our level of comprehension.”

 

Asgore, along with this poor innocent yet terribly unlucky bystander, had witnessed in the span of a single minute more unexplainable behaviors, twists and phenomena, than he had previously in most of his life.

Teleportation. Conspiracy. Treason. Unknown magic, or other forces of unknown nature, used to foil him. His most trusted subjects and friends, turning their intelligence against their kind, and against common sense all at once.

 

“If, by any chance, you also witnessed the human that caused us so much harm… Please, let me know. Did you see any clues that it could be the same one?”

 

“......... I h-heard them talking about Undyne. It sounded like they knew her...”

 

While unable to explain the reasons as to why, the shy ghost saw their only chance at finding the truth through stating the facts that they had directly witnessed, and knew were true without a doubt. Was this helpful?

 

“T-they knew my name, too. I think...?”

 

The King welcomed these clues with a cold, ashamed, tired silence. Unable to face his informant, he turned around slowly and took a deep breath.

Before his eyes laid the exit of Snowdin’s main town, and the beginning of the long walk to the entrance of the Waterfall region. Could he even be certain that they went this way, instead of the other one? Mysterious, magicless teleportation meant that he could not rely on any known types of hints or samples to trace back. No scent. No sight. Not even a magic signature for maybe miles around.

Who knew, maybe this non-magical kind of teleportation had broken through the secrets of the Barrier, at this rate. Maybe they were running on the Surface by now, free from their limited kingdom’s jurisdiction and power…

 

The poor ghost appeared shyly in the corner of his field of vision, unobtrusive and anxious. They were already about to apologize for their boldness and excuse themselves.

The poor soul… Such traumatism it should have been to witness a human so brutally. Especially after they had come with the intent to help and the fear of seeing victims of a landslide accident…

 

“Please pardon my lack of reaction, I hope you did not take it personally.” he muttered with a small, sad smile. “I am very grateful for your answers; they are of the utmost importance. You can go now with peace in mind, my friend. As for me… I may need a moment.”

 

Napstablook bowed, or nodded, depending on the possible interpretations his evasive but deeply respectful gesture could inspire; then they were off, vanishing gradually by dispersing through the air, pretending not to exist… or becoming one with the cosmos, depending on your perspective and whether you saw the glass half empty or half full.

 

The king did not send them away with a lie. He did need a moment to recollect his thoughts… and make a choice.

 

Asgore buried a big furry hand under his cape, letting the cloth glide along his arm and in the cold wind. A keen eye could, for a fraction of a fleeting moment, spy the glow of six dimly reflecting colors, ready against his chest.

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	11. Act 1, Scene 5.3

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **— Act 1 —**

### Don’t Let Him Find Out

## Scene 5.3

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* * *

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* * *

Nobody needed to tell Dawn that they had arrived in Hotland. Even if they had not specifically mentioned it out loud before going down the specially built stairs descending to the bottom floor of the entire Underground and even if she had been unobservant enough to miss the few direction boards laying around, the heat alone was indication enough that they had arrived, as it greeted them as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

 

Dawn yet again wondered where those stairs came from and why the entrance to the Hotland region looked so different from the game, but she reasoned that given how big the Underground was and how many new places she had got to see, she wouldn’t have put it past them to have more than just one access from Waterfall to Hotland. Maybe the path the players were supposed to take was located somewhere else and she just didn’t see it.

 

The monsters had long thought during their ride through Waterfall about what their next place to hide should be. The laboratory, although being an arguably good choice, was sadly too obvious, since Asgore certainly knew by now that Alphys was part of the team. Grillby offered shelter in the flat his wife and son lived in, but that option involved telling the truth to his family as well, and there was again the risk that Asgore already knew he was helping them.

After much debate, Mettaton’s Resort ended up as the winning location by default, due to it being debatably the least obvious choice, as well as a decent enough hiding place on the long term. It had been long abandoned following the robot’s misfortunate death, so the likelihood of meeting coincidental bystanders was nearly nonexistent; and if they arrived through a shortcut and left the entrance locked, this should leave no obvious trace of their presence and give them more time.

 

Sadly, the group was not granted the opportunity to follow through with this plan.

 

Loud and slow stomping sounds resonated, somewhere far ahead. Everybody immediately stopped. To the human’s absolute dismay, the Gaster Blaster materialized again and started hovering above their heads. It soon descended and almost reached ground level in front of them, and its summoner silently ordered them to climb, specifically sending her a wordless _“ this is not negotiable”_ look.

 

She was slower than they would have all preferred, but to her credit, she was still able to stand and approach the giant skull despite her shaky legs, and the assistance she gained from Alphys and Sans gently but hurriedly pushing her towards her intended spot accelerated the process to an acceptable level.

As soon as all four had taken their seats, the giant bullet flew away from the ground and as far away from the path as possible, hiding in the shadows of the main cave’s walls. From there, they could finally see the source of such noise.

 

They would have very well preferred not knowing.

 

Far away in the distance, but still tall enough to be easily noticeable, stood a gigantic creature. It was blocking the main path and slowly making its way towards Waterfall.

 

One glance was enough. They all recognized him.

They all understood what had happened.

 

Asgore was staring straight in their direction.

The blaster dashed towards the upper floors.

The king gave chase. His running was as fast as it was loud.

“How did he even make it before us!?” Truth be told, there was no use for discretion anymore. Finally Dawn could panic as much as she wanted.

 

“M-maybe he took the access to the capital through the marsh? I don’t know!” Alphys answered, just as panicked. “It’s NOT a shortcut! Unless he could somehow FLY through the whole thing, there’s no way he could’ve been faster than us!”

 

Cue the six sevenths of a god deploying a pair of feathered wings and taking flight with all the grace and speed of his six-soul powered glory.

 

“I just HAD to say it…!” the lizard deplored, face-palming with deadpan savviness.

 

“...Well that explains the flying issue.” Grillby muttered, with much less concern in his voice than he felt like he should have put. “Um... It was nice meeting all of you, I suppose.”

 

“we’re **_NOT_** gonna die.” Sans countered, gritting his teeth and repeating various words with the intensity of every mantra he knew. “can’t die. can’t fail. worked too hard for this. not now. _not this time._ ”

 

The three passengers exchanged sorry looks, all thinking the same thing but not daring to say it out loud. If they had even one chance in a million to get out of this situation alive, then letting the only one who still felt even a single faltering ray of hope know that his opinion was not shared by the others was the best way to blow it for real.

Dawn maintained her silence, but the sadness in her eyes when she sent Alphys a desperate and questioning look soon let the scientist guess exactly what she had in mind.

 

“Don’t worry about time jumping out of this. By now, I’m positive that’s our only real chance.” she whispered back.

 

“But he has six souls.” she trembled. “I’m only supposed to be as strong as _four_ of them, r-right? What if it means that he…?”

“He can’t.” she assured. “Monsters have been proven to be completely unable of time jumping, no matter how powerful. If he had seven souls that’d make him a god, so maybe then something different would happen… But he only has six.”

 

“you’re still in charge.” Sans concluded sharply and resolutely, as he started to get annoyed at the length of Alphys’s explanation. “put that to good use.”

 

… Yes. As much as it pained her to erase shared memories and friendships… It was now obvious that they had no other choice left. She _had_ to Reset.

So she closed her eyes, tried to focus, or meditate, or stay calm and _determined_ , and…

 

A giant hand engulfed more than half of their view. Sans’s magic maneuvered the blaster in order to avoid it; but just as it appeared that they had gotten away from its grasp, ghastly white flames continued the assault, leaving the four passengers with no other choice than to be hit by the bullets closing on them from almost all angles, or fight back.

 

They really only had one option. It was merely debatable as to which one it was going to amount to at the end of the battle, depending on whether or not it was going to make a difference at all.

 

Alphys and Grillby stood up, one facing the rear and the other focusing on one side, but they soon found difficulty in keeping their balance due to the erratic trajectory of their means of locomotion. Thankfully it did not alter too much their ability at generating and throwing their own bullets, mostly with the goal of stopping Asgore’s from reaching their target. Sans first tried to take part in the battle as well, but he soon found himself unable of battling and keeping steady control over his blaster’s direction at the same time, and had no other choice than to focus on his driving.

As for Dawn… To be fair, contrary to what one could have feared due to how she had handled the trip in Waterfall, she was _not_ stuck on the blaster as a trembling fleshy ball. Probably because she was seeing the monsters fight, she felt inspired to assist them; maybe a burst of adrenaline even made her forget her vulnerability, or made her think that if monsters were fighting back, then she, a human, was naturally expected to be more resilient than them.

 

Still, it did not mean that she was all that useful. She was desperately looking around them for something to do or use as a weapon or shield, only to find none. Furthermore, not being a crippling mess of tears did not mean that she was fearless: in spite of her efforts, the environmental chaos and bone were no help to her abilities at critical thinking, and only increasing her panic and hopelessness. Even when the skeleton summoned a long and solid bone and provided her with a potential weapon of defense, she found herself with no other choice than to use it as a makeshift baseball bat and hope that what middle school PE classes had taught her would be enough to help save their lives. It was already a miracle that fire bullets actually acted like solid shapes that could be bounced off.

 

This was when Sans realized a terrible reality:

The human had not a single clue how to fight.

 

Never think you already saw the worst of your opponent, instead be ready for any surprises. Bullets can come from anywhere, but never turn your back on your opponent. Don’t waste a single second, because every action matters. Stamina is the key, not firepower. The list went on.

 

Needless to say, the club-like bone bullet did not last long. The first bullet to hit it at an unexpected angle completely tore it apart in the middle, and soon the entire structure fell apart and Dawn was found holding nothing but thin air.

 

Then went the next horde of bullets, hitting from below.

The blaster shook, more and more white smithereens appeared and gathered around Sans as he was using more and more magic to hold everything in place…

Then another bullet hit, yet again from below.

 

The blaster burst into white nothingness. Then there was nothing but orange walls rising from the ground at high speed, the sound of wind howling, and the silhouette of a deadly creature shrinking in the hellish fiery sky.

For an instant, Dawn found herself thinking that it was over.

 

Even if Sans generated another blaster. Even if they survived the landing, which they reasonably could not due to how fast they were already falling by this point. Even if they could continue fighting off Asgore’s bullets, which they had hardly been able to do so far due to how obviously powerful a six-soul powered Boss Monster was compared to regular ones, and compared to herself.

Asgore would keep following them. They could not escape. They could not hide forever. He would just find them again.

 

Her friends were falling to their death, and she was too; wasn’t this the perfect timing if she wanted to Reset things back to a more peaceful time? She was _determined_ to give everyone their Happy Ending and save the world and she _did not want to die_ , right? So **_why_** _wasn’t this **working** …?!_

Was she so stupid that she could not figure how to use a simple game feature? Was she so useless that because of her, everybody would die, either forever or until something weird happened and the game Reset the world again, only to trap all the monsters in its infinite time loop once again and ruin Sans’s plans entirely?

She wanted to go back. She wished it with all her might. How could this not be enough…?

 

She saw the gigantic paw of the almost-godlike Asgore ~~(Omega Asgore? Photoshop Asgore?)~~ approach her from below, ready to catch her. It was the end.

 

If not the sudden bright blue glow coming from her chest, it definitely was the jerk and sudden change in her fall’s trajectory that pulled her back into reality and made her realize that Sans still had not given up. She looked around and saw him falling beside her, with Alphys and Grillby further away; Sans’s hand and sockets were filled with blazing blue magic, and when she saw that he was pulling her towards him, she tried to reach out and extended her hand as far as she physically could. Finally their hands touched, and they did not let go.

Sans looked at Alphys and Grillby, still falling and trying to use their magic in various ways, but to no avail.

Sans looked down. The lava was close. Too close.

There was no time. There was no choice.

 

He sent each one of his three companions one last, hopeless and apologetic look. He certainly wanted to say that he was sorry; but even if he did say it, nobody could have heard him.

His sockets closed and the entire world disappeared.

* * *

For her first shortcut, this certainly was disorienting; and definitely not what she would have expected.

Instead of landing in molten blazing hell at an absolutely deadly speed, all of Dawn’s adrenaline was washed off when the howls of the wind stopped and she was engulfed in cold, dark water. Her body’s survival instinct was the only thing that allowed her to pull herself back to the surface and cough out all the liquid she had inadvertently ingested following the shock of finding herself in an entirely new location without warning.

Only when she could stand on her shaky freezing legs and look around could she find Sans in pretty much the same position as her and fully process what had happened, while having just as many questions to ask.

 

“Y-you sent us back in _Waterfall_?” _‘Why here of all places?’_ and _‘We were there just a few minutes ago, what was the point of going back here?’_ were going to be her next questions, but the skeleton’s coughing was too loud, and even after it stopped, he did not let her phrase these ones.

 

“i don’t know what happened— we were supposed to land in the hotel, but something came up.” he retorted hurriedly. “i couldn’t get past him. t’was like the barrier. but that…”

 

“So he interfered with your shortcut or something…?”

 

“ _I don’t_ _k n o w , okay!?_”

 

Sans pulled himself up with apparent difficulty. The human walked to him warily and offered a hand to help him, but he did not take it. She did not insist.

Dawn looked around. No one in view. Her stomach sank.

 

“W-what about…?” The names she had in mind did not make it on her tongue. It was too painful to say.

 

“ ** _don’t._** ” the monster snapped in a low, hoarse voice. A weird sound followed. It almost sounded like a sob. “p-please… just don’t.”

 

He was panting. Maybe more than just that. Instead of trying to stand up, eventually he just gave up, sitting in the water and letting the cold liquid splashing loudly around him and submerging him up to his shoulders when his legs gave way. The human sent him alarmed and sad looks, willing to encourage him to at least go back to more solid and dry ground, but unable to voice them and push him too hard. He pretended not to notice. Of course _now_ the kid would want to lead the action. Of freaking course. Had she already forgotten how she had acted in the face of danger? Did she seriously think they still had a chance?

 

There was a low, disheartened sigh. “why didn’t you try to go back yet?” he asked angrily, but also with a chilling, nihilistic calm. Of course, deep within, every human was the same. “afraid you’d miss out on something if you did? didn’t you get enough?”

 

Dawn’s jaw dropped in absolute incredulity, and the shock of hearing this was so sudden and strong that she needed almost a full dozen of seconds before she could find her voice back. But when she did, she did not hesitate a single moment to say everything she had on her mind.

 

“Wh— Are you _serious_? Of _course_ I tried to Reset! It’s not _my_ fault if it just– _doesn’t work!_ How could you ever believe that I wanted to _stay_ in that crazy fighting thing!? We could’ve all _died_ out there! M-maybe Alphys and Grillby already did!”

 

She could hardly believe it. How was _this_ any of her fault? How could _he_ accuse her of deliberately slowing things down and putting them in danger? How could he seriously think that this player mentality of wanting to do things just for the sake of seeing how far the rabbit hole could go and escaping the consequences would play here, when she both cared for every single person involved, and when the consequences were absolutely real for everybody around them, herself included? _Was he for real?_

 

“In fact, since you ask me why I didn’t Reset earlier,” she stuttered breathlessly, “I can do the same — why didn’t _you_ teleport us all, _with_ the blaster, _before_ Asgore exploded it in our faces? Huh?!”

 

“i can’t take that many people at once!” he instantly snapped back. “in fact, i’ve never taken more than one person with me at any time, an’ all these shortcuts all day have been wearin’ me down a lot more than i’d like to admit. happy now?”

 

The teenager crossed her arms and furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance. “You could’ve just _said_ it, you know.” If he went out and called her childish or anything, that would take the cake.

 

As soon as the skeleton raised his skull and almost-empty eye-sockets towards her, a seven-second-long staring contest began. For the first time ever, the human was the one who eventually gave in.

 

“I’m not gonna blame you if your shortcuts _‘don’t work that way’_ or something like that.” she sighed and turned around. But immediately she turned again and pointed a dramatic accusatory finger: “As long as _you_ don’t blame me for not figuring out how to do something that I _literally_ haven’t been told anything about and that I wasn’t supposed to be able to do until _yesterday night_. Talk about _Guide Dang It_! Well, flash news, I don’t know how easy it was for you to learn how to break the laws of physics, but it’s _not for me_. And don’t you dare tell me I _‘just didn’t try enough’_ or whatever.” After a small pause she lit up, although cynically: “Hey, here’s an idea! If you want me to _actually_ find out how to get us out of this mess, just tell me how it works! I mean, isn’t that what you supposedly studied in a lab at some point?”

“a goddam _kid_ figured it out better than you. how hard do you think it is?”

 

“Oh I don’t know, since it’s so _easy_ , you wanna find some creative ways to kill me repeatedly and see if I figure it out from the afterlife? Maybe blasting my face off will help you get this all out of your system!?”

 

The girl’s last shouts echoed for a moment around them due to the cave, but were soon engulfed in the surrounding growls of rushing water. Only after hearing her own words did she stop, first because she needed to catch her breath, and then because she realized that maybe Sans was not the only one who needed to get things “out of his system”, after all. Hopefully she had got enough stress out already.

 

The silence persisted. After a few more seconds, Dawn slowly went to the edge of dry land and sat down, facing the skeleton. She realized that the place looked a lot like the room where the River Person would be expected to appear; but once more, there was nobody in sight.

A few evasive looks were accidentally exchanged once or twice, although each would send their eyes (or floating pupils) in the opposite direction every time they felt like the other had noticed. It was stupid.

 

Finally Sans spoke up. “… i’m sorry i snapped. again.” He took a second to take another deep breath, then sighed again. “too many things went wrong today. shouldn’t have blamed you for it, though.”

 

“Definitely not.”

 

She had initially intended to keep it at that, but eventually found it to be too harsh for him. He _had_ been through hell for way longer than she had, after all. She snorted weakly.

 

“… And here I thought you said you weren’t mad at the players. Am I reading into it a bit too much or you’re more mad at us than you’d want to tell me?” Unless he was mad at humanity in general, which was yet another option.

 

There was a forced, strained and humorless laugh. “you didn’t even play. can hardly call you a ‘player’ at all. maybe it’s just frustrating that i couldn’t get a real one to mess with. which makes things even dumber ‘cause everything here is even less your fault than for the others. i’m not even allowed to get mad at you for anything game-related. it’s not like you _chose_ to be the one picked out.”

 

She cracked up a small twisted smile, beside herself. “Well, if it makes you feel better… I guess I _kind of_ understand how that must feel like…? I mean. You go _out of your way_ to get a player and let them know how much harm they’ve caused to everyone and _especially you_ , and in the end, of _all_ the guys you could’ve got, you get stuck with _me_.” She let her hands lazily display her own self for emphasis. The silly gesture made her crack up again. “I guess it _is_ kinda unfair that you couldn’t get even a _tiny_ bit of healthy revenge done or something.” Not that it ever stopped him from trolling her all the same, to be fair. She snorted again. ““Healthy revenge.” Can’t believe I’d ever say something like that. Is that even a thing?”

 

“sure you made that one up.”

 

“Totally did. Revenge is bad.”

 

There was another pause, filled first with shy and awkward laughter, then with welcomed deep breaths on both sides. Maybe they really just needed to calm down and breathe, and it seemed that where they were, maybe they would at least have some time alone to do just that.

After almost a full minute of silence and introspection during which he examined their options, Sans eventually turned around and asked in a tiny voice:

 

“… um. are you _sure_ you tried hard enough…?”

 

Here came the face-palm. “ _UGH!_ _Yes_ , I _did_. I **_also_** totally jinxed that you’d ask that one, and _even_ after I said you would you _had_ to ask it anyway.”

 

The monster shrank his spine in his jacket and seemed about to mutter a fast apology, but he completely forgot to say anything when, outside of the room but much closer than they would have liked, slow footsteps were heard. The two fugitives froze in horror, then Sans jumped on his feet and they dashed around for a possible place to hide, or another way to escape, but none were available.

Sans started yet again to worry… but after letting his anger and panic flow through his trembling bones, he slowly let them leave him. What was even the point…?

 

“… we’re dead.” he concluded. “we’re all, so totally dead. deader than dead.”

 

When the apparently lonely stranger made their way inside the room they were in, the exclamation that was uttered was clearly not the one they had expected to hear.

 

“THERE you two are! I’ve been waitin’ all afternoon for you slowpokes.”

 

They stopped dead in their tracks. Without exchanging a single glance, they turned around in a single swift and synchronized motion; the human instinctively thought of pointing menacingly her trusty crowbar as a means of self-defense to keep any assailant at bay, only to remember that she had dropped it long ago and that similarly, Sans’s temporary replacement for it was gone as well. So she basically pointed nothing other than a pair of empty arms that quickly reconverted into a ridiculous pseudo-karate chopping gesture. As if she had ever learned actual karate at any point in her life, instead of just being influenced by lousy movies that really want to see you die in battle upon realizing that their tricks are _not_ going to work in real life.

 

Fortunately for them, the monster they encountered was, or at least looked, far from hostile. In fact, it appeared to be an old turtle man who barely just walked out of whatever place he had been until then, pushing the drapes out of his way on both sides like an actor who just made his way on the stage and past the red curtain, ready to address the audience; from both sides of a certain wall.

It was the infamous Hammer of Justice’s time to shine, and he seemed to have absolutely no care in the world for his role and lines. Already blaming the protagonists for being late on their cue? What does he think he’s doing?

The old man took a short second to look at the visitors up and down, assessing the damage. Then he sighed heavily. “You really did a number on yourselves, huh? Betcha kids are darn lucky you made it this far.”

 

“G— What…?” Thankfully the teenager had finally learned her lesson and knew better than to stupidly address him by name, for once. This did not prevent her rational mind from entering a dangerous infinite loop, however, as the same thoughts cycled at a hypnotizing rate: _What the daunting heck. When did he even. How did he. Why was he. So many questions. Brain not working._

 

“You folks wanna live or not?!” the elderly monster hissed, opening more widely the path to where he came from and motioning it impatiently. “Quit dawdling an’ get in there before anyone sees you!”

 

Well, given how resisting would have done nothing but generate even more ruckus and, indeed, enhance their odds of being discovered by someone else, Sans and Dawn soon reasoned that, after all, _why the heck not_.

They were already dead unless a Reset could magically save them; they could just as well wait in a calmer place… No matter how surreal this whole thing was.

How could that old man possibly know they were coming? _What_ did he know exactly, for that matter?

 

On the other side of the heavy concealing curtains, they found Gerson’s shop: a dark, small cave room full of stuffy old junk mixed with masterpieces from a different time, all intertwined in a disparity of eras and economical value.

 

Due to the anxiety of accidentally finding and tripping on one of these relics scattered on the ground, the visitors found themselves subconsciously scanning the ground for invisible obstacles along the way. The turtle rushing them from behind did not help, but it certainly accelerated the process and pushed them into a semblance of a messy living room in barely a dozen of seconds.

Gerson locked a door behind him, closing the path and view between the main shop and this room.

Then he turned around and finally relaxed. Somewhat.

 

“What’re you doing standing there like a bunch’a typhas? Take a sit already! Make yourselves at home. B’sides, maybe you’ll find something to your taste in my neat collection, wah hah.” Yet another befuddled look was exchanged, but the pair soon found an old sofa in the back and complied without a word of protest. Immediately the old monster spoke again, while his face was hidden in the middle of a dark kitchen closet. “Tea or juice?”

 

Sans finally found in him the courage to talk back. “l-look sir, it’s nice of you to offer but we’re not interested. we’re kinda in the middle of something, what with the king wanting us dead and our friends probably about to bite the dust. looks like you already know about that part anyway. somehow.”

 

“Will ya know what, I felt it was coming. I knew good ol’ Fluffybuns would snap sooner or later. He’s had so much on his plate, the poor guy. An’ with that last abomination…”

 

Dawn shamefully shrank in her seat, looking down with chills running down her spine.

 

“Wasn’t talking about you, youngling. I meant the one before you. What a sight. That thing wasn’t human, I tell ya.”

 

He rummaged some more through his cupboards.

 

“…Wasn’t the first time it happened, either.”

 

Somehow, the tone employed in that last sentence put both visitors on edge. In what sense was he meaning that…? Given how he didn’t seem surprised at all by who they were, who knew what he could be aware of or not.

 

“Younglings, I’ll ask you one more time. Tea or juice?” He wasn’t going to let that go, huh? Still, he kept searching and soon his tone was lighter. “…Ooo, looks like I’ve got some cocoa too.”

 

Dawn jumped on that word without thinking. “C-cocoa please?” she tried to ask politely with a small sheepish smile.

 

Gerson finally pulled his head out of the closet and eyed her for a full second of deep silence. Then he laughed darkly. “Wah ha. Feeling fancy? Not used to the resources down here, are ya.”

 

The human blushed and timidly cowered again in embarrassment and guilt. Had she accidentally asked for something that would be rare or expensive or something…? Why did he offer it as an option if it was a wrong choice to take? Who did that!? “I— sorry, I didn’t realize it was… I-it’s okay, I’ll just take—”

 

“Shhh, don’t you worry about it. This is a special occasion after all.” he shushed her humorously, shaking his head slowly and chuckling in a deep voice. “Time will jump back soon, one way or another. Ain’t like it’s gonna matter.”

 

Well. Here it was. He knew.

 

“What about you, young man?”

 

“o-oh, uh… tea please. i guess?”

 

“Good choice. You’re gonna need all that vitality given what’s to come, wah-hah.”

 

That… he had nothing to reply to except for a non-committal shrug. Dawn wondered if Gerson could possibly be alluding to the “Sea Tea” consumable item’s ability to increase the consumer’s invisible Speed stat.

 

Still. Somebody needed to address the elephant in the room sooner or later. Now was as good a moment as any. The human gulped silently, trying to gather all her courage.

 

“So. Yer a human, huh? Heard you were quite different from the other ones, too. ‘specially about… a certain thing.”

Not only had the old turtle beaten her to it, but before she even had time to say anything, he was lazily pointing a clawed finger at her chest and a dim cyan light erupted from it in response, without her permission or control.

While the feeling wasn’t unpleasant, the fact that this magic grasp was somewhat hugging something that was located _inside_ of her felt incredibly intrusive. It looked like she was the only one in the room feeling that way, though. Maybe monsters saw it differently, but… shouldn’t the action of looking at other people’s SOULs without their consent be seen as _rude_ or anything?

 

“That’s quite an odd one you got there, kiddo. Clearly doesn’t belong here.”

 

Seriously, what was it with monsters showing her SOUL around just like that as if it weren’t a big deal? Especially if hers was supposed to be so allegedly “special”…

Thankfully, right after having said his last sentence, Gerson lowered his arm and released his grasp, and the big magic heart went back to stand invisible and immobile inside her chest like a good little puppy.

 

“Take really good care of it, will ya? I’m afraid if somethin’ happens to it, you’re not the only one who’s gonna suffer. Far from it.”

 

Yeah, and she really wished she could control all this magic weird stuff her soul was doing independently from her will. For what was supposed to be the culmination of her being, it sure sometimes acted like it had a mind of its own; that, or monsters’ influence on it was just that impressive.

Probably more by instinct than by conscious will, her hands went to shyly cover her chest, even after the giant heart hidden inside of it had disappeared from their view.

 

“Y-you have a l-lot to explain… _sir_.” she groaned defensively, refraining once more from calling him by name. It was better not to assume that he knew _too_ much, since the more leads they were giving him, the more likely he was to become even more cryptic. “H-how did you know? Who told you about us?”

There was first nothing but deep, enigmatic laughter. Of freaking course. That old guy sure wanted to gather every single “old wise man” trope in existence, didn’t he? Well, it was starting to get annoying. Did he want to help them or not?

 

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that.” he reluctantly answered, wearing an apologetic and almost sincere smile. “I get the feeling that my source wouldn’t like it if I told you.” Wait. A source? So someone else **_did_** tell him? And more than that, someone _else_ knew!? “To be fair, I’m sure you know enough to figure that one out on your own, young lady.”

 

What was he talking about? Who _else_ could possibly know about their existence and secrets without ever letting themselves known? It couldn’t possibly be Alphys or Grillby, so it had to be someone who would have been stalking them since the start? But who could have…

Oh. Ooooooh. Oh please God freaking no.

 

“Flowey.” It hit her like lightning. _Of course_ it was him. Who else could it have been? This was the only thing that made sense and that was self-explanatory under all possible angles, and that was saying something given how many questions this was answering all at once. “I-it. It’s _him_ , right? H-he **_knows_** about us!?”

 

“whoa, whoa. slow down. who you talkin’ about?”

 

Dawn froze in horror. Just to be certain that the skeleton was not joking, she turned her gaze towards him and stared at the lights in his sockets. When she realized that he was _absolutely serious_ , all blood drained from her face.

 

“Flowey is Asriel Dreemurr resurrected without his soul after Alphys injected a golden flower with determination. He was manipulating the timeline before Frisk fell in the Underground and there’s some debate as to what exactly happened between you two but it’s very heavily implied that in the timelines when he went out to kill everyone you “caused him his fair share of Resets” and now he avoids you like the plague and kinda acts like you’re his archenemy. I think.”

 

Once her tirade was finished, she was not the only one in need of deep breaths. A dead silence overpowered the room, weighing on everybody’s shoulders. Sans’s eye-sockets were wider and rounder than she had ever seen them, with shockingly small pinpricks of light in the middle.

She finally took a single instant to process what _exactly_ she had done and said in the span of barely ten seconds, and just how inconsiderate this had been.

 

“Ack— S-s-sorry…!” she hurriedly shrieked in guilt. “I should’ve broken that down to you more slowly…”

 

Sans slowly and heavily blinked, but he quickly shook his skull. “no… no. you did good. just… g-gimme a minute to process that.” He closed his sockets again and raised his face towards the ceiling while leaving his hands on his lap, taking a deep breath. Then he lowered it again and buried his forehead and nonexistent nose in parallel rubbing hands, without stopping his noisy breathing. “man that’s nuts…”

 

Good job, dummy. Best possible way to drop the anvil.

 

The human judged it wise to shrink down in her seat and stay as silent as possible for as long as her friend needed to recollect his thoughts.

Gerson chose this exact moment to fetch the drinks and distribute them. Thankfully the hot drinks would help them all calm down and bring a bit more peace. As soon as Sans was given his cup of tea, he barely thanked the old turtle and immediately took a long, slow sip from it. Fortunately, it seemed to help and took effect in just a dozen of seconds.

 

“… i’m, uh. guessing i’m still missing out on a lot of important stuff, if **_that_** is supposed to be common knowledge to all of you.” the skeleton eventually muttered, slowly weighing his words. “i might like it better if you were more cautious the next times, but if there’s other stuff i need to learn about… i’d be grateful if you could let me know asap, yeah.”

“W-well… I don’t know what you _don’t_ know, but. Yeah. What I just said is something that every player who’s been through the whole story or hung around the fandom for some time is supposed to know, so…” She still could hardly believe it, though. That he had no idea who the flower really was, she could figure. But that he had no idea Flowey existed altogether…? “Y-you _do_ remember at least one timeline when you all went to the Surface, right…? I m-mean, since you know it’s possible to make it there at all…”

 

“i remember one time when it happened, yeah. so?”

 

“Then— don’t you remember him from that time? He showed up soon after you all stopped Frisk and Asgore from fighting, and before the Barrier broke.” Just after a split second of seeing the skeleton give her an unsure look and a small shrug, she pulled out her phone and quickly searched through the fanart saved in her folders. “Wait a sec— here, look at that. Sure you haven’t seen something like him before?”

 

Sans stared at the cartoony drawing of a yellow flower with a white smiling face on it, but no sign of recollection could be seen in his nonexistent eyes. Soon he turned his skull back towards the teenager and shook it apologetically.

 

“… Shit, you _really_ don’t remember anything. How…?”

 

“dunno, pal. but i swear that doesn’t ring any bells.”

 

Oh boy. Ooh God. Holy macaroni.

 

“look. seems pretty obvious that we _did_ meet at some point, even if i can’t remember.” he corrected. “it’s just that it must’ve been from before i saved my memories. before that… well. everyone’s got some déjà-vu from time to time, but i was the one who was getting the least of them from the bunch, if the _one_ iteration that remained tells anything. and after i got to save them… i’m pretty sure that completely stops me from having any sorta déjà-vu altogether, now. whatever happened and was erased before it was saved in my program, the memories aren’t gonna come back.”

 

Huh… Well. Looked like his memory wasn’t nearly as complete as she had imagined, after all.

 

“Déjà-vu is an ability of the soul.” Gerson soon explained, breaking the silence right after he took a sip from his cup of tea. “If you keep your mind sharp and your senses open, you’ll see more. But if you cheat…” He gave a cryptic look at the skeleton, smiling darkly. “I don’ know what you did. But by shortcutting your way through time jumps… You miss out on everything the long way has to offer normally. You might end up knowing even less than what others lose and catch up on again during every loop, in the long run.”

 

There was a deep, humorless chuckle. “that sounded like a good idea at the time, when i did it. i really didn’t wanna forget what i learned back there.” Maybe he was remembering how he was merely parroting this sentence from someone else. “now, though… i’m not so sure. i still don’t wanna let go off those memories, but…”

 

“An error of the youth.” Gerson shook his head slowly, in a solemn manner. “I know it’s hard to accept, sonny, but some things are just... better left inaccessible. Knowledge like that… may not be worth throwing yer life away for.”

Despite the hot cocoa warming her heart, a cold shiver ran down Dawn’s spine when she heard that last sentence.

 

Instantly flashbacks of a specific line of dialogue she had read a few times while reading fan theories resurfaced.

 

* Knowledge like that is  
  the only reason I’ve  
  survived so long.

The fact that this line was supposedly readable only during the Genocide Route did not help her feel any better.

 

She gasped in remembrance. “You already know…”

 

Sans raised an uneasy, still nonexistent eyebrow. “y’mean the time-travel issue? well, thing is…”

 

“Not just the time-travel issue.” she interrupted. Then she turned towards the other monster and asserted: “You know about the video game.”

 

Gerson’s smile completely disappeared. He sighed. He closed his eyes. And then… He nodded slowly. “I’ve been told about it.”, he confirmed.

 

This brought so many huge and heavy questions. How? When? Why? Those didn’t feel like the right ones to ask.

 

“H… H-how much do you know?” This appeared to be as good a starting question as any. Testing his knowledge’s boundaries was supposed to be a smart strategy in order to better understand his answers to the questions that would come afterwards.

 

“Only what can be deduced from seein the player’s antics and various game things. They’re supposed to stay invisible for all but the players to see. Emphasis on “supposed to.”” He laughed again, then paused again; probably for no other reason than for a good old dramatic effect. “It always happens when a player’s around, or however that works. Eh, I heard that the game’s still gotta be patched somehow, like it’s still a work in progress. Can’t blame it for glitchin’ at times. Nothing’s perfect.”

 

Okay, _what_ now…? “W-what are you talking about? Does that happen often?”

 

“I can only remember clearly those that happened during this one iteration, of course. But seeing some this time around reminded me of… at least some of the previous ones.” A cryptic smile appeared, always the same, always still. “Maybe you’ll cause ’em to appear, one of these days.”

 

Against all odds, after a second of silence, Sans scoffed.

 

“what’re you saying. “player antics”? “game things”? have you even played a video game before?”

 

“You would be surprised.” the turtle chuckled. “Undyne is a worthy opponent.”

 

The subtle shifts on the young skeleton’s skull were hard to decipher, but seemed to indicate the skepticism of someone about to say _“ that’s not what i meant.”_

 

“no offense, but you must be remembering wrong. i’ve been stuck in quite my fair share of time loops, and i’ve never seen anythin’ like what you’re saying.” _not that you’re saying much to begin with._

 

“The same way you’ve never seen anything like what I said about a yellow flower?” Dawn retorted sassily.

 

“… my point still stands. this makes absolutely no sense. you must be hallucinatin’ your déjà-vu or something. they hardly count as memories anyway.” The human was already opening her mouth, but: “and before you ask, resurrecting someone with determination is a huge breakthrough, but it’s absolutely plausible. whatever it is you’re on to with that “player magic” of yours, the game doesn’t work that way.”

 

The teenager couldn’t help but stare at him in surprise for the next couple of seconds. To be entirely honest, she had always imagined that Sans would be a lot more open-minded than that, especially regarding new, unexplainable and world-changing phenomena.

 

Still, she had to give him at least _some_ credit: Gerson couldn’t possibly be any more vague with his explanations.

 

“It’s true that…” She started, but never finished. “What I mean is. Can’t you tell us _exactly_ what you’re talking about? What did you see?”

Gerson immediately replied with a quick _“ Of course, of course.”_ Yet, after this, although his mouth remained half open, no other sound came out. The dangerous words he was about to utter had to never be said, for the sake of keeping things in order; and as such, a mystic, glassy veil soon fell over his unfocused eyes, and the turtle remained perfectly silent, as he was supposed to. The guests started to wonder if the old man could have fallen asleep during his reminiscing, or somehow been turned into a statue.

 

After almost a half minute of absolute stillness, it appeared clear that his mind had drawn a blank.

Thankfully, he eventually blinked, bringing the life back in his formerly glazed look.

 

“… Don’t remember.” he finally answered, just as disappointed himself as he figured his audience to be. “Sorry, folks. Looks like someone ain’t too keen on lettin me tell ya.”

 

Wait, you’ve just been given a warning, and you ignore it already? What are you playing at?

 

Sans’s eye-sockets darkened dangerously, as the grip on his cup of tea warily and gradually tightened. “. . . What is **that** supposed to mean?”

 

Don’t you dare answer that one.

 

Gerson paused for another set of seconds, still with that empty look staring at the void. But then… He closed his eyes, smiled weakly, and shrugged. “Nothing you should worry about just yet, kiddo. You’re still young. Got most of yer life ahead of you. It’d be a shame to waste it like that. The less you know about it, the better.”

 

Ugh. It could have been worse, I suppose. Still, will you ever learn to shut up, old man? Trust me, you really don’t want to break _that_ kind of fourth wall.

 

“As I said, I wasn’t supposed to see it in the first place. Can’t blame ’im for wanting to fix his mistakes, you know.”

Dawn felt yet another shiver run down her spine. She had no idea where this conversation was going, but she sure didn’t like it. “Who are you talking about? Your “source”…? Flowey?”

 

“I must apologize, kiddo. But I thought I remembered specifically telling ya that I can’t give that away.”

 

Okay, now this was starting to frustrate her too.

Giving vague and incomplete answers to tease them, only to give up on explaining the whole thing halfway through… it wasn’t fair!

 

Still, if she could gather enough clues from what he had already said so far… Some “weird video game stuff” was happening, even if they weren’t supposed to; Gerson called them “glitches”, more or less, and claimed that they needed not to be addressed because a certain someone was trying to patch things up in the meantime…

Well. This profile, too, sounded familiar.

 

“I see… That’s too bad.” she sighed overdramatically. “And here I thought I once heard about a certain character who’d supposedly have to patch some holes in a certain fabric… Multiple characters, in fact. All supposed to allude to the main developers and artists who created the game.”

 

She paused calmly, even attempting her own version of the old turtle’s cryptic smile when she sent him a sassy look.

 

“Fun fact, if you look at the Kickstarter’s website, you realize that originally they had created multiple dog personas for each of the main team members. In the end they only kept the one that represents Toby Fox himself, but hey, who knows. Since I arrived here I’ve been able to see quite a lot of stuff that’s hidden from the regular players. You never know.”

 

Ugh. Congratulations, old man. She wasn’t supposed to hear about that before at _least_ a few more days. What a way to rush her investigation and shoot her ahead of schedule without thinking of the consequences.

Having finished her speech, Dawn crossed her arms and puffed up her chest confidently, waiting for her words to take effect. Next to her, Sans was sipping his tea again, his unsure glowing pupils lost in the void and trying to handle this newfound information.

 

Gerson’s reaction was… underwhelming, to say the least. The monster had closed his eyes and appeared to be deep in his thoughts; but he also was quite serene. Pretty much the contrary of what she had been shooting for.

Sans had to be the one to eventually break the silence and ask for clarifications.

 

“um… mind givin’ us a bit more details about that?”

 

The human shrugged. “Do you remember that white dog who always trolls Papyrus in Snowdin?”

 

“there’s… _lots_ of white dogs in snowdin, pal.”

 

“There’s one that’s supposed to drive Papyrus crazy on a regular basis. A small Pomeranian, I think… That’s the one.” she explained. “The “Annoying Dog” is supposed to represent the creator of the game — I heard that some sprite files even call it “tobydog” or something. Anyway, in-universe speaking, the game treats it like it was “accidentally programmed” by the dog barking with text-to-speech on. I wonder if that has to do with anything. Of course we all thought it was just a joke, but… you never know. We didn’t know that the game was real, either.”

 

No sign of recollection came on the monster’s face. On the other hand, he looked downright skeptical regarding the human’s explanations, laughing openly at her theory.

 

“programmin’ a whole game with text-to-speech on? better yet, “programming” us? well, y’know what they say about the monkeys and the typewriters…” Despite him, a smugly doubtful chuckle resonated. “still. just the idea of bein’ created by a team of humans… _now_ , i need to see all those religious guys’ faces if they learn one day that their god is just some dumb animal playin with a microphone.”

He seemed about to repress some more mockeries, but he was interrupted when the bookshelf on the wall behind him partially gave way, giving one of the tomes it was supporting a push just strong enough to let it fall and crash on the back of the impertinent skeleton’s skull. The cry of pain was immediate and satisfying enough as a lesson.

 

Instantly imagining the worst upon remembering that Sans only had “1 HP”, Dawn put her cocoa down on the table and rushed to him in panic, almost expecting him to turn to dust in the next couple of seconds.

 

“i’m _fine_ , i’m fine!” he repeated, brushing her off but refusing to remove his hand from the back of his skull. Fortunately, it seemed that he was going to stay alive. “good thing books don’t have intent.”

 

Gerson watched the two visitors’ antics with always the same discreet, mischievous smile. When the panic settled down and silence came back, he sent Sans a smug look.

 

“There are powerful forces at work, sonny. The least you wanna do is respect them, if you wanna live long.”

 

The skeleton grunted annoyingly, still leaving one bony hand glued to the spot where the book had hit. “i don’t really believe in that superstition stuff, sorry. not my fault if your shelf’s broken.”

 

The turtle’s only answer to that was a _“ Oh well, I did try to warn you”_ shrug. Dawn’s reaction, however, was that of sudden curiosity.

 

“You have superstitions about this…?”

 

“always. lots of stuff about not angerin’ the _“spirit of the angel”_ or hanging delta runes upside down and whatnot.” Sans sighed, emphasizing his disbelief with his quoting gestures and childish tone while citing his examples. “that one is new, though.”

 

“The most important ones are not necessarily the most widely spread, sonny.” Gerson stated calmly, always with the same smile. “Stories are mostly told to inspire good behavior and hope through the hardships of the day. Those that do nothing but suck out all meaning in our lives… we’re better off keeping them in the dark.”

 

“whatever you say.” Instead of trying to reason him, Sans gave up, as he merely bent forward to gather the book that fell and hand it back to its owner. “be careful where you put your shelves, next time. waterfall and centuries old wood are accidents waiting to happen.”

 

As soon as the former vendor let his eyes wander on the book’s cover, his entire face lit up like that of a child on their birthday.

 

“Oho…! Look what fate decided to throw at yer thick skull.” he cheered joyously. “Good ol’ Ammott. Looks like you found his old diary.”

 

The human frowned in confusion. “Ammott…?”

 

“Ammott Dinsprie. He used to be the Royal Children’s tutor, back in the day. You should definitely find some time to read it, as soon as the circumstances allow it. It’ll teach you a lot about the life in this world.”

 

… Huh. The more you know. To be honest, like most fans and especially because she had been surrounded by so many friends deep into the theories domain, she had always imagined that Chara and Asriel grew up at the time when W. D. Gaster was the Royal Scientist, so she would have expected _that_ name to show up instead… But eh. “Royal Children’s tutor” and “Royal Scientist” did sound like different things, at least to some extent.

After hearing Gerson’s excitement at sharing such lost knowledge, she had expected him to hand the book over for her to read; but instead, he kept it close to his chest and, standing up from his seat, went to put it away on a different shelf, before he came back to sit down once more.

“But for now… You have enough on yer plate already. There’s no point in givin’ you that book. It won’t follow you where you’re going.” he quickly justified.

 

The turtle monster slowly bent backwards, making himself even more comfortable inside his armchair and taking a deep breath, as his smile expanded into pure satisfaction.

 

“Well… My job here is done.” he declared. “There is nothing left for you forward. Now, your only future… is backwards.”

 

“Yeah, I need to Reset, I know.” the human sighed. “But how do I _do_ that? I’ve been trying for maybe an hour or something.”

 

“Trust your fate. Don’t force it.”

 

 _“Fate”, huh…_

Even before she realized the reason why, this specific sentence once again sent chills down her spine.

 

* Fate finds a way.  
* In life’s grand scheme, she  
  might be why you came here  
  in the first place...

 

… Damned was this game for being so darn cryptic about everything for no other reason than for being cryptic.

 

“It will happen when the right time comes.” Gerson added, as if no time at all had been spent between his first sentence and this one. “… Which must be pretty soon, given how Fluffybuns’s comin’ this way.”

 

This last precision was dropped like an anvil. Startling, effective, and extremely painful.

 

“he’s—” Sans jumped out of his seat, crashing his teacup down on the table with a thundering din. “Why didn’t you tell us!?”

 

Gerson’s tales had been so entrancing that they had almost effectively forgotten all about Asgore. Was this his plan all along? Was this what backstabbing felt like…?!… Far from sharing his visitors’ distress, Gerson had not moved an inch.

 

“It was meant to happen sooner or later. This chat was nice while it lasted, but… The show must go on.” the turtle stated serenely. “An’ that’s why I trust the providence that you’ll do just fine.”

 

“providence my butt.” the skeleton sputtered angrily.“dawn, we need to go right now.”

 

The teenage girl was right behind him and did not need that implied order to decide what had to be done; she had immediately extended her hand towards him, and he promptly took it in his, ready to warp their way out.

Just before they left, the crafty reptile had one last warning to give, cryptic and unhelpful as ever:

 

“You’re lucky that time’s on your side. It has your back for now… but don’t act like you own it. Trust me, you don’t.”

 

To be fair, Sans hardly listened to it, and was already far away by the time Gerson was done. Not that it fazed the old turtle at all, for that matter.

Diving even further into his armchair, however physically possible it was, he closed his eyes, took a sip from his cup of tea, and gave out one last, disillusioned sigh.

 

“Hah… Poor girl. She won’t last a week.”

 

“Wow. You sure changed the record _fast_ , didn’t you?”

 

Without opening his eyes, one eyebrow went up.

 

“Oh, you’re still here? I thought you’d wanna follow after them. Aren’t they the main focus?”

 

Somewhere between two small rocks, the earth trembled a bit and a yellow flower emerged.

 

“I was _going_ to, but then I thought we needed to talk, after all those fairytales you told them.” he groaned. “You old fool. That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“I didn’t tell them what’s right. I told them what they needed to hear.” the old turtle muttered. “I thought that’s what you wanted me to do. Keep them alive longer.”

 

There was a funny, but empty snort.

 

“Funny of you to think that I’m doing this because I _want_ to.” Flowey countered. “I know what to do to survive. Not crossing the game’s will is _“How to Be Left Alone and Alive”_ one-o’-one.”

 

Gerson hardly blinked, stolid.

 

“How did you even pull _that_ off? I can’t believe you remembered that much just by looking at her.”

 

“Don’t remember nothin, boy. You’re the one telling me all that yer thinking. Ain’t my fault if you’re no good at keeping secrets… Young Prince.”

 

He scoffed. “This is the first time this happened— You shouldn’t be getting any déjà-vu!”

 

“Is it? I can’t tell.” Gerson smiled defiantly. “Looks like my insight’s just that good.”

 

The young flower’s face crunched up in annoyance mostly; also in a different kind of feeling that he forcefully tried to hide, but that almost appeared to be apprehension.

 

“You talk too much.” he warned in a threatening, but winded voice.

 

“I’m old. Way past the age when I can say whatever I want.” the elder bragged proudly. “I’ve lived and seen for far longer than I should’ve. Death can come an’ get me. See if I’ll care.”

 

“Falling down should be the least of your worries, if you had any care for this world.”

 

A bark of laughter erupted. “Look who’s talking! Now I’m gettin’ empathy lessons from the likes of you? That’s rich.”

“I don’t care what happens to you, but _you_ should. Your fate’s tied to that brat, just like everybody else.”

 

“I have nothing to do with that one personally. I know you don’t either.” He took another sip. “Only thing I got any interest in is that lil’ game of yours. How yer still thinking it’ll lead you somewhere at the end. Let me tell ya, son. It won’t.”

 

By this point, all traces of apprehension had disappeared. Only annoyance remained.

 

“Shut up, before I make you.”

 

“Wah-hah. Don’t you have anything better to do than give the old guy a lecture? I bet your little protégé’s in a tricky situation right now. Shouldn’t you make sure she makes it out alive? It’d be a shame for her time to end so soon.”

 

Gerson’s cryptic smile showed up one last time, as his eyes scanned the little flower without fear.

 

“We both know who’s more deadly in the long run, between you and Fluffybuns.”

 

“Oh, you think _I’M_ a threat?” the child cackled. “Didn’t you hear what that brat said? Some people here got to keep things in check. I wouldn’t wanna cross them if I were you.”

 

“Yes, yes, right you are.” Gerson shrugged. “Now go before Asgore kills her for good, ya knucklehead. We all know they won’t make it without the right push.”

 

“On my way.” Flowey rolled his eyes in exasperation. “How’s that tea coming along, by the way?”

 

The tea cup was barely a fraction of an inch away from the turtle’s mouth, when he stopped in the middle of his action. He took an instant to appreciate the still warm steam that kept raising peacefully from the hot beverage and caressed his beak and beard. A nice, yet barely absent flowery smell was lifted in the air, while small vibrant specks of gold disappeared and dissolved among the originally intended components around it.

 

Buttercups.

 

Why, it had been so long since he had seen this accursed, poisonous color. Gerson raised a silent, unsurprised but still somewhat disappointed look, back at his interlocutor. Maybe the fact that he did not lose face and that shock did not appear in his expression, not even for a single second, was the last straw.

 

“I hope you’ll have enough time to choke on that before the Reset comes.” the soulless flower spat. “Show’s over for _you_ , at least. You idiot.”

* * *

How it happened doesn’t matter.

 

How Asgore found them within seconds after Sans landed his shortcut, doesn’t matter.

How Sans ended up trapped in one of Asgore’s gigantic paws and Dawn in the other, doesn’t matter.

How Sans found himself unable of teleporting away and paralyzed by bone-crushing, dusty pain, doesn’t matter.

 

These last sentences voice an opinion that may or may not be shared among a majority. Still, it is an opinion.

 

Just as it is an opinion to cry out that seizing and ripping out a soul out of a human’s body without properly killing them first requires so much power that it should normally be judged impossible to accomplish.

 

Nevertheless, it still is exactly what happened, certainly because good old Fluffybuns was starting to think that too much time had been wasted through stalling for the inevitable; the same way writing thousands of words on black paper is if, in the end, despite all the development and revelations they tell, it all amounts to nothing because of an unsatisfying ending that leaves you with no lesson to learn, no answers to the questions that have been cruelly raised, and no happy ending for the characters you may or may not have been rooting for.

Oh, wait. You actually want to read it? My bad.

Not that you’re missing out. It’s pretty boring, really. Absolutely no drama. No meaning. Just, plain and brutal.

* * *

Dawn was firmly held by a giant pawed hand, almost twenty feet up in the air; all by courtesy of having landed in one of the bedrooms in the upper floors of MTT Resort, only to then have a six-souls powered Asgore smash the walls separating the outside of the building from its inside, whether horizontal or vertical.

 

Just by seeing the King’s face… It pained her to see him; she wondered whether he really was just angry enough to fully disregard the consequences his actions could have, or if, as Gerson mentioned… He had merely but fully snapped, one way or another. Could the six souls have had an effect on his mind or sanity? Asgore’s expression was similar to blind rage, not…

 

A new kind of pain shot through her chest and broke her train of thoughts entirely. Whatever was happening, it felt like something had taken a hold on her soul, but in a much more tangible way than what Sans’s blue magic felt like. Some foreign but physical influence was actually grasping her soul from within, and trying to pull it out by force. Worse: it definitely felt like it was working.

She couldn’t do anything against it. It was the end.

 

The two fugitives exchanged one last horrified glance. Sans could not escape, he could not help her escape, he felt himself slowly losing his grip on reality as the horrid smell of dust was slowly engulfing him, and she was a human with absolutely no combat experience stuck facing a Boss Monster with almost as much power as a god.

She was dead. Absolutely dead. As dead as he was soon destined to be.

 

The King’s pull was admittedly slow, but slowly effective. As a cyan light was starting to appear at a location near, but outside of her chest, the human’s vain struggles came to a stop, as she appeared to have lost consciousness.

She was going to die. She was going to die. She was going t

Well, I told you it was boring. Like that’d really happen. Plot Armor is such a cheating life saver when you get your characters stuck in these impossible situations.

* * *

Sans woke up in a start. Foreign memories flashed in his skull, in complete contradiction with what his body inputs were telling him about his surroundings. As soon as the time-traveling knowledge was done settling in his mind, he knew exactly what this meant.

 

This wasn’t the first time this strange sensation happened, and as such, as soon as his eye-sockets opened, he knew exactly what to do, as if by (nonexistent) muscle memory. First thing, by reflex, he jumped out of bed without a second thought. Then, his attention and field of vision were directed towards the tiny little details he had learned to look out for first: mirror, window, calendar…

Not that any of his past selves _ever_ bothered to keep the calendar up to date, _ugh_. Still needed to remember to stop looking at that one because it was a stupid waste of time.

 

Anyway. He needed to focus. How far back did she go?

 

 **Location:** His bed, his room. Snowdin Town.

 **Time:** Judging by his pajamas and the state of the cave’s ceiling lights outside, early morning.

 **Date:** … He always hated checking that part.

 

Sans opened the door of his room in a rush, then dashed to the bannister and looked down.

 

Papyrus raised his head in surprise, but soon a giant smile full of enthusiasm sliced his skull in half:

 

“Oh! Good morning, Sans! You woke up early today. There’s oatmeal for breakfast!”

 

Sans ran back to his room, slammed the door behind him and faceplanted in his bed.

Okay. _That_ far back. Uuuuuuuuugh.

 

Well. On the bright side: Papyrus was back, everybody was back, nobody would remember the past month, and they probably wouldn’t have to deal with an angry six-souls powered Fluffybuns anytime soon. Also Papyrus was back.

Now, the drawbacks: he would have to start everything from scratch. _Again_.

 

… Oh, wait. He needed to go fetch the human, too. _Right_.

 

There were a few sharp knocks on the door.

 

“Sans, are you alright? Do you need to talk? What happened?!”

 

When Papyrus entered, Sans was already gone.

* * *

As soon as Sans arrived, he found the hotel room in a much cleaner state than when he had left it. It was emptier and he felt very lucky that nobody had been booking it at that point in time; nobody was there, except for…

 

Dawn was lying on the floor, alive but visibly in pain. If things had happened the way he was guessing it, then she certainly had been dropped from a height of at least a dozen feet, and had understandably failed the reception due to the suddenness of Asgore’s disappearance, and to her unconsciousness. Bad luck had her land barely a foot to the left of the gigantic bed right next to her.

 

But. She was alive. He rushed to her, but she didn’t seem to acknowledge him. A quick look at her soul showed that it was a bit out of place and in obvious internal pain, but from what he could see with his limited knowledge and perception, he detected no serious injuries to it.

 

He maintained his magical grasp on her soul and tried to keep it as soft as possible, and thankfully, after about a minute or two, the human let out a tiny whimper. It was a matter of seconds before she was conscious enough to turn her head towards him and whisper his name.

 

“are you alright?”

 

“Y… Y-yeah. Kinda feels like I might’ve sprained my ankle or something, though…” She quickly added in a lower, somewhat joking tone: “And my back. And probably other things, too. Everything hurts.”

She tried to roll on her side so she could sit up, and the skeleton quickly jumped on his feet and offered his bony hand as support. She didn’t think twice and seized it firmly, trying to put the rest of her weight on her uninjured foot, then slowly putting the other down and letting go of his hand… She visibly failed to restrain a wince of pain.

The air that seethed through her teeth made Sans feel the pain for her too. That sounded nastier than she claimed.

 

“… Yeooooowch. O-okay, that hurts. A lot. But it’s not _“atrocious hellish pain that’ll make you scream like a dead pig”_ , so, I g-guess it’s fine…? How much pain is too much pain anyway? Kinda subjective.”

 

Besides, as Dawn reasoned, if _Sans_ had been stuck in numerous timelines before, _he_ would know about pain. The poor guy.

 

Sans could very easily see through her euphemism, but he did not insist. Sadly for her, they had more important matters at hand; he was at least thankful that the human wasn’t going to be a whining burden.

 

“Anyway, what happened? And why are you wearing…” She did not feel the need to end her sentence; the mere sight of the barefooted, pajamas wearing skeleton was too much to process. The fact that the sentence _“I’ll feel better yesterday”_ was written in a goofy font on his black tee-shirt was the main cause behind her mind shutting down, admittedly.

 

Sans’s already strained and worried smile suddenly melted down. His eye-sockets widened as he stared at her in shock.

 

“… you seriously didn’t figure it out yet?”

 

“I think I passed out at some point…? I missed most of the action.” she apologized with a sheepish grin.

 

Oh boy.

 

Could it be that she… hadn’t actually done it on purpose?

 

“well… it’s really hard for me to believe you didn’t notice when you did it, but you, uh, “reset.” back to before frisk fell down, even.”

“ _What_ …?!” Yep, she totally hadn’t meant to.

 

“hey, t’was about time. i was startin’ to wonder how many death threats you needed before you’d do it. third time’s the charm, i guess? anyway i can’t say i'm not a bit upset that you sent us _that_ far back, but we were kinda out of options back then.”

 

“No, Sans…” Then Alphys, Grillby— their memories…

 

“besides, gotta get real. if you’d let yourself die, we would’ve lost our shield against the game. i mean, since you’re not from this world, the time jumps shouldn’t affect you at all, so if you died, even going back in time wouldn’t save you, so…”

 

She tensed and bit her lips resolutely. “Sans.”

 

“it’s going to slow us down, but it’s much better than getting stuck in time loops again and not being able to progress at all. and everyone’s back and they won’t all want to kill you _that hard_ anymore, so in the grand scheme of things, this must’ve been the best outcome for everyone, i _guess_.”

 

“ _Sans!_ ”

 

“what?”

 

Right after this outburst, and after the surprise of having successfully interrupted him, the teenager found herself gulping tensely. But after a split second, she recovered and stared, her eyes filled with determined, yet terrified sparks.

This was the look of blunt honesty. Even if it had to hurt.

 

She inhaled sharply. “I didn’t do it.”

* * *

“T-the key is to k-keep it elevated and in ice.” Alphys assured, pacing back and forth between the loading screen on her computer and the boiler on her desk at the other end of the room. “At least that’s what they say in anime.”

 

Sans complied without question, securing a makeshift soaked cloth around Dawn’s entire foot and almost up to her knee, and basking it all in a bowl filled with ice cubes. The human had first attempted to convince them that she could take care of it herself, that _“it’s just a sprained ankle guys, I’m not gonna die or anything”_ , but this was yet another battle of will that she surprisingly lost.

Or partially lost, since at least she was _thankfully_ able to provide the obviously unaware monsters with what little medical knowledge she had.

Which wasn’t much, but _just_ enough to not make things too much worse, and to prevent her monster friends from unintentionally finishing her off. Not that she ever believed her situation to be lethal in any urgent case, but with these two, she never knew. They had the best of intentions, but despite their undisputable intellectual brilliance, it was sadly obvious that their subject of research had nothing to do with keeping humans alive.

 

It was kind of nice to have Sans so intent on seeing her heal as fast as possible, but all at the same time, he wasn’t exactly hiding the fact that said intent had not much to do with her personally and much more to do with the fact that, as he had repeated a dozen times to Alphys, _“ if she dies, it’s the end for us too.”_ Whatever that meant to him.

 

Speaking of Alphys… It was painful. She was keeping her distance with them, she was stuttering a lot more than usual, she was both keeping and avoiding eye-contact… Alphys’s nervous looks were difficult to return. They were similar to how she used to behave during the “previous night”, when they had first met; she was much less hostile and much more frightened and confused, even though sparks of recognition still shone here and there, but…

Well, it was great to see her alive and okay. But still…

 

“The s-soul scan looks… I m-mean, there’s no major injury left, s-so… That’s good?”

 

Sans walked to the lizard’s side and stared at the screen, and although he did not seem to understand much of what he was seeing, he was contented with what he heard.

 

“nice. if that’s all, guess it means we just have to stay put until we’re done with the repairs.”

“You’re… going to fix your time machine again?” the teenager asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow and uneasily raising her voice due to the distance.

 

“well, duh.” he shrugged. “i mean… i know i’ll have to rebuild the other one too since you brought us back to a time before i had it, but, uh… sorry, after what happened, i’m gonna want to start working on the time machine first.”

 

“Can’t exactly blame you on that.” she smiled weakly. “It’s okay. I understand.”

 

She had meant these words to be genuine… but they still felt hollow in the end. God would she miss her family.

She gulped, trying to find the strength to once more utter the question that ate her from the inside ever since she woke up. She had already been given an answer, but still… She wasn’t convinced the slightest.

 

“Are you _sure_ there couldn’t be even a _tiny_ little chance that _maybe_ I didn’t do it?”

 

Ugh. She really didn’t want to drop that one, did she?

 

Sans rolled his eye-lights. “kid, i already told you. i did the math over and over. there was no way i’d go as far as invite any of you guys here if i didn’t know **_exactly_** what i was doing.” he sighed. “i could scan thousands of souls from afar, and the spectrometer’s results were clear. the means of their dt level was much higher than the game’s and every single one of them would’ve done their job perfectly if they were in your place. i seriously don’t see why you’d be an exception.”

 

“But I was unconscious and literally on the verge of death when it happened. How _could_ I do it?”

 

“you prolly just did it by instinct as a response to the stress of dying and all that.”

 

“Then why didn’t that happen when we were falling to our deaths in Hotland? I was trying even harder back then. That makes no sense. Don’t you find it a little weird that it happened during the only time I _wasn’t_ actually trying to Reset? _Not even a little?_ ” she countered. “Not to mention that when I was thinking of Resets, I specifically didn’t want to go that far back, because I _knew_ that’d erase your month of progress. Heck, I don’t even know how Resets work, but I wasn’t even sure it was possible for me to go back to a time before I showed up here at all.”

 

Either because she had effectively installed doubt in him or because she made him want to prove her wrong, this long rant kept the skeleton silent and thinking for a few dozens of seconds. Then he spoke again confidently:

 

“… tell you what. we’re already in the perfect place if we wanna measure stuff scientifically and whatnot, so if you want proof that you did it, we’ll give it to you. how’s that sound?”

 

“… There’s a way to check that?” Needless to say, that sounded perfect.

 

“Y-your soul is already f-four times stronger than it s-should be… There’s no question that this amount of d-determination should g-give you a-access to… Y-you know.” Alphys rambled uneasily.

 

“only thing that’s _almost_ as powerful as that is the game’s anchor limit. you just have to score higher than that. and as i already said, that shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

* * *

The Determination Extractor Machine is such a wonder of monster technology. So ahead of its time, such a pioneering engine and source of even more advances in the study of magic…

 

The human’s knowledge of this machine is, as all know-ledge she has of this world, broader than it should be, and all at the same time, insultingly limited. She doesn’t suspect the intricacies of its wiring, nor does she under-stand the full scope of the power inside her SOUL.

She enters the skull-shaped scanner, she admires and lets herself feel intimidated by its beauty and peculiar, entrancing but phobia-inducing shape, but she cannot see what is at stake and what this machine represents to the universe it is anchored in.

 

And now… this is where it ends. In just a few instants, the result of her SOUL’s determination level will come out. Just a simple number, for everyone to see.

Five digits that define the fate of an entire world.

She has not a single clue that, starting from this very instant… her future is sealed.

 

The determination level that the video game’s main influence has been proven to amount to is 42.013 kMS, as Sans had measured it times and times again in the past timelines with minute precision, to the point when he knew this number by heart and could recite it at any moment without hesitation.

 

Any human soul originating from the world this pseudo-Player came from is supposed to be high enough above that limit so that the most random person taken from there would still be above that score by at least two or three units; just as what Sans explained.

 

If the density of the population of all humans in that world were to follow a Gaussian curve, (which it definitely does not), the probability for a human SOUL to be below the game’s level would be of less than 0.5%, which amounts to one chance in twenty thousands.

 

All this being said… This is truly a shame.

This is such an anticlimactic end, especially after what _could_ have been a different, much more violent ending. Both options are so unsatisfying in their own ways.

 

It is somewhat tragic to use a last-ditch effort to get your protagonists out of a premature ending, only to find them at the dawn of another hardly an hour later. After all, once they gain their answer for sure, what is there to come? There is no more drama; no more surprises; not nearly as much as there has been so far, at least. She is injured, and as such, much less likely to do anything interesting for a while because nothing in this universe has any reason to push her to. Who will come to disrupt Sans’s research again?

 

Asgore? It would be a miracle if, even if he were told again that a human was present, he would bother to come before at least a few days.

 

Undyne? The human was going to be stuck at the skeletons’ house for a while, which meant that Papyrus was definitely going to be there to prevent anything dangerous from happening. Who could possibly bring any sort of drama?

 

Mettaton? Maybe if he learned that a human was present in the Underground then he would try to devote part of his show to that topic, but it was very likely that he would still find a way to make that show about himself instead; and even then…

 

That human had her good moments, but… she was fairly bland. She had not much drama potential since the start, and now that she was injured, what little stunts she could have pulled in the past day are now out of the window until she heals. She has no more potential to bring for this story. She has brought the end. She…

 

41.972 kMS

 

… _doesn’t_ have enough? Huh.

Well. Now _that_ changes everything.

 

 

Act 1 — Don’t Let Him Find Out

 _END_

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	12. Prompter Echoes : Monday, May 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is terrible, especially the end. I'm so sorry for taking so long. The good news is that at least this chapter is over with and the next one is done almost halfway through so chances are it'll come out either next week or the one right after.  
> I still hope you'll be able to at least enjoy this a bit, despite its lack of quality and meaning compared to the previous ones ;-;

#  **Learn When to Quit**

##  **The Prompter Echoes**

### 2016, May 2nd

## OST: Reminiscence ~ Ante Matter 2016

###  [» Read the PDF version here! «](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G2L64BOMN-iNPSsseJyFnkd_gSGz-9NH/view)

###  [» Read on tumblr here! «](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/post/188006748682/prompter-echoes-20160502)

* * *

This is the main index where you can choose which way you wish to read the chapter.

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Read Plain Text Here (formatting limited to what AO3 can do)

  


* * *

Steven D. Kaplan, nineteen years old, also known online as WinDows Gulim, administrator of the _Temmie Village Forum_ and its multiple satellite servers on various systems, was concerned. Concerned as in, lying awake and restless in his bed since the very moment he tried to lay down a few hours earlier. He simply could not let go. He could not forget the events he and his friends had witnessed; it had been too sudden, too nonsensical… too heartbreaking.

In all honesty, he was not a close friend of Dawn’s per se; she was among the most recent members on his forum, and although she was Lys’s best friend, they simply did not have that much in common besides that and _Undertale_.

 

Still… She was Lys’s best friend, as well as, from what he knew at least, her _only_ true friend outside from the screen. As much as he had tried to keep Lys company ever since… It simply was not the same; she could not just forget about her, and he could obviously not replace a lifelong _BFF_.

That, and… When said lifelong friend seemingly betrayed everyone by running away on her own, or when there was the guilt of feeling like Lys was the one betraying her in the first place… He could only imagine how much it hurt. He could not fix something like that. That was too much.

 

Heck. He could not even meet with Lys face to face, what with her living literally on the other side of the world. He loved Australia and he had dozens of friends of his own around him, but when it came to how much he could interact with Lys… The isolation and technical difficulties resulting from the distance and time difference was unbearable. And yet, despite that, he still could not let go. Powerless as he may be, he knew that Lys needed him.

 

His phone vibrated. In a split second, it was in his hand, displaying the new message he had received:

Called it. He _knew_ she would want to talk.

Finally a reason to do something productive and put his insomnia to good use.

@You: Yeah. How are you doing?

@Lys: Huge break in the case.  
@Lys: Is it ok to call you?

 

… Wait, what? Seriously?

In the span of a dozen of seconds, Steven had rushed to plug his headset in and started a vocal call. Lys answered immediately.

 

“Great, you’re here. So, are you ready for an info dump right now?” Well, she certainly did not waste any second and dove into the sauerkraut right away. What a girl.

 

“I guess, yeah. It’s three a.m., but now that you’ve said that I can’t just hang up _now_. What happened?”

 

There was a quick snort, but it was soon repressed by what he could only imagine was his teen friend attempting to maintain an Absolutely Serious face, full Film Noir mode.

 

He could hear street noises and strong, resolute footsteps. Apparently she had not even waited to settle down and had sent him her messages right after leaving high school.

 

“So. You remember how it went yesterday after she vanished, however _that_ happened. Her mom made flyers and all that while Charlie and I gave our testimonies. Nobody saw anything though, so I was the only one who could really give them any leads for a chronological reconstitution of what we know.”

 

“I still can’t believe nobody noticed anything. Is she really that sneaky?”

 

“Well, Charlie said he heard something weird and went to knock on her door to ask if she was okay, so I guess not; but as soon as he entered, she was already gone.” A quick pause. “She wasn’t sneaky, but she sure was fast. The ‘premeditated’ kind of fast. And that’s where nothing makes sense.”

“Because it sure as hell wasn’t premeditated. Right?”

 

From her tone alone, he could easily deduce where her reasoning was going. That, and, although he did not know Dawn all that well, he surely knew Lys and how she regarded her best friend.

 

Dawn and he had drifted apart soon after meeting online, because apart from the topics of Lys and _Undertale_ , they hardly had any common interests. Besides, he had quickly stopped talking to her about Lys since every time he attempted to bring up the subject, she would start making these stupid clichéd jokes and laugh at those clichés and “aww” (ironically) and call them her OTP (unironically).

He did not need that kind of annoyance to plague his life, especially not when his real-life college buddies from IT class were already doing their part and would not _ever_ let him hear the end of it anyway.

 

Still. Dawn could be annoying. Dawn could be (kind of) smart and self-conscious about lots of instinctual human behaviors. She could be crafty and a bit of a prankster at times, when she was in the right mood (that bit was certainly Yoshua’s bad influence).

 

But: she was not a liar. She was not manipulating, and she sure as hell cared about her friends. No matter how angry and sullen she could get when people turned against her, she would never pull something like _this_ on any of them, let alone Lys. If a plan were behind her disappearance, such plan would have needed to be so elaborate and inconsiderate… There was no way in hell she could have thought it through, let alone pulled it off. She would definitely have sought some sort of “revenge” for Lys’s “betrayal” by “blackmailing” her, but her revenge would have been on the exact same level as what led to it.

She would have sought revenge through harmless pranks and possible other surprises she could have kept for them. Not through disappearing for no reason and making every single person she knew worried sick for her well-being.

 

Whatever had happened, it was certain that Dawn wasn’t in a normal state of mind at that moment. Or… that they were missing something deeper, that could better explain the contrast between her pre-disappearance behavior, and the strange and seemingly impossible actions that would have led to the resulting events.

 

“Exactly.” Lys answered, always in her Serious Mode. “She said that we’d see her “in a few minutes”, and then she was gone. Was she lying? Had she already prepared her escape that way? It’s not something she’d set up— and even if it _were_ , that still doesn’t answer the most basic question: I mean, _how_ did she even _do_ it?! Even the police has no idea which way she went to just _leave her room_. Her flat’s on the bloody _fifth floor_ for fuck’s sake!” Another dramatic pause supposed to hide the fact that she needed to breathe, and then: “But that’s not even the best part.”

 

“I’m listening?”

 

“I’m saying that we don’t know how she did it ‘cause as far as the hints we’ve found show, it was _literally impossible_ for her to leave without being noticed. Her mom was in the living room so there’s no way she could’ve left through the front door, and once _that_ exit’s out of the way, all other options for leaving the flat are of the same level of her just jumping out of her window and _magically making it out alive_ , which has no way in hell of happening. You see what I mean by that?”

 

“She must’ve found some other way…?”

 

“We’re stuck with a **_fucking locked room mystery_** is what’s happening.” Lys gritted between her teeth. “There’s the theory that since it could’ve been _“premeditated”_ ,” (he could literally hear the air quotes and eye-roll just in her voice, wow) “ _maybe_ she left the room much sooner than we thought, and that then she sent those last messages from her phone, once she was already far away. But in that case, that doesn’t explain why Charlie would’ve heard anything, if by that time she was already gone. So, that idea’s out of the way.”

“Hmm. I’m guessing that if the police didn’t find anything that could’ve helped her escape through her room, it means they didn’t find anything that could’ve made that noise after she left, either?”

 

“Her laptop was the only thing that could’ve made any sound because we couldn’t find her phone, and it was muted. So, nope, nothing.”

 

“How about her run…? I thought you said she had launched Undertale on it.”

 

“It was, but she didn’t do anything on it. Frisk was still on the bed of flowers and didn’t move from there.” she quickly explained. “I checked her menu just in case— turned out she’d started the game on Hard Mode.” There was a weak snort… “Turns out she really had a surprise for us after all.”

 

Steven frowned. “If she _did_ start to play and even planned to prank us with it, why did she leave?”

 

“Well. That’s where the breakthrough comes in.”

 

The footsteps paused for about a dozen of seconds, probably as she was waiting for a traffic light to turn green. When they started again, they were resolute as always.

 

“Nobody was around at the time, so nobody saw her leave. We concluded from that that since she was **alone** and locked in her room, then she was **the only one** who _could’ve_ done something to leave, right? We were the only witnesses, if we can even call ourselves that — we interacted with her the minute before she disappeared, but we couldn’t see what happened. She left _somehow_ , without leaving a trace, and without the intention of leaving any trace, because what kind of person running away would want to be found, _right?_ ” The grin that appeared on her face was practically audible. “ _Or so we thought._ ”

 

Wow. Was she saying that they had found proof that somebody _else_ had been in her room at some point?!

 

“Wait, so the police found fingerprints or that stuff?”

“Ha, no, not a chance. There’s still no concrete proof that anyone else was there at the time.” In an instant, her voice had jumped from confident and satisfied to have found a lead, to suddenly dejected and bitter. “But. Something happened. You’ll never guess.”

 

As much as he enjoyed hearing her so determined and active after almost twenty-four hours of panic and near-depression, her game started to feel like she was stalling for a little too long. Steven’s heavy eyelids chose that moment to painfully remind him how tired he was. “It’s three-fucking-thirty a.m. over here. Just tell me already.”

 

“ _Charlie got a fucking video call from you-know-who._ ”

. . .

 

Does. Not. Compute.

 

No but in all seriousness, she had lost him. What? How? When? Why???

 

“… The fuck?” was the only question his crunched up face managed to voice.

 

“I _know_ , right!?” The only reason Lys had not openly shouted was, he guessed, because she was out in the streets and that although he was certain that by now she might have gotten a few stares from random bystanders, she still wanted at least to avoid making some sort of scene or just be viewed as a complete weirdo. She quickly added: “And better yet, get this: she sent _me_ a PM. Here, wait a sec— I’ll show you.”

 

Without hanging up, he quit the window for the call and waited for any kind of notification to show up on his phone. Just about a minute later, here went a screenshot:

 

@Pineapplup: Hey! Finally able to tell you what really happened yesterday when I disappeared or whatever. You wouldn't believe me if I told you but this is HUGE. I’m really sorry if I couldn't read your messages earlieriiooop

 

Hardly five seconds later, Lys spoke again.

 

“Are you done reading?”

 

“Yeah, just a sec— yeah. She… didn’t finish it?” Welp, wasn’t that ominous as all hell.

 

“Nope. Looks like a finger got stuck on a few keys at the end for some reason, like if she took a grip on her phone and had to hide it from view quickly, for example. And after that, she sent that draft without correcting or finishing it.”

 

“… Like if she was in a hurry.”, he found himself thinking out loud. And when he said “hurry”, it was “hurry” as in, of course, way more than _just_ in a hurry.

 

“And _better yet?_ I tried to send her a few messages a bit everywhere — texts, Discord, WhatsApp… Well. My WhatsApp messages are marked as “sent”, and _not_ “delivered.” Which means that it’s not only that she didn’t read them— it’s that her phone _couldn’t receive them_. Either it’s turned off or she moved to a place without any reception or something.”

 

None of these options were good signs, especially with the implications of their previous deduction as to _why_ Dawn would send an unfinished message. Still, the part that kept bothering him was that the casual tone in her PM seemed to imply that she had (or at least she _thought_ she had) all the time in the world to write as long a letter as she wanted; and yet, very quickly, her message was cut short.

What kind of situation would make her think she was safe for long enough to write a long and detailed explanation, only to prove her wrong before she had any time to write anything of actual significance? That did not make sense…

 

“Either way. Dawn calls Charlie, she sends me a message that she doesn’t get to finish, and after that she can’t receive anything from us? Sounds a lot like she was trying to tell us something **_“huge”_** , like she said, but that _something **else** stopped her_.”

 

Besides himself, Steven gulped. Images of the worst horror movie scenarii flashed in his mind.

“So… What do we do?” he quickly asked, in a voice much less manly than he would have preferred.

 

“You still didn’t guess where I’m going?”

 

… Knowing her, that was not reassuring to the slightest.

 

“… Aren’t they busy with loads of police guys already investigating the place or something?” he tried. “I’m sure Charlie already told them everything about his call. You can go to the police and tell them about Dawn’s text, but you should leave her family alone.”

 

“But he’s _seen her_!” she pleaded. “Maybe if I’m fast enough I’ll see him before they interrogate him.”

 

 _Lys. What the fuck are you doing. No. Bad. Bad girl._ “Uh… Didn’t the police tell you something about letting them do their job in peace or something because _they’re_ the professionals and you’re not?”

 

“Oh, yeah. I’m not a relative and the police already checked my flat and my stuff just in case I could’ve helped her escape or something. They consider that I’m no longer relevant to the case and that I shouldn’t interfere.”

 

If anything, the footsteps he could hear sounded like they were speeding up. Steven sighed, carefully removed his glasses, and face-palmed, letting his hand slowly glide all the way down his face.

 

“You’re gonna ignore them and investigate anyway, aren’t you.”

 

“Totally.”

 

That single word was imbued with unquestionable pride and the confidence that she was undoubtedly doing the right thing, despite the obvious existence of the laws that existed for no other reason than to protect her from her own recklessness. It was such a shame that whenever she disagreed with the authority she had to act like she had her own personal laws to follow instead…

That girl was so incredibly crazy. Why did she have to make his heart pound in so many anxious ways. Next time she’ll give him a heart attack because she’ll build her own rocket and fly herself to space like if it’s no big deal or something.

 

“Dude. Don’t get in trouble, ‘kay?”

 

“The police left her room _ages_ ago, they’re not gonna mind! They think she ran away, they won’t worry about what she left behind in her room after they’ve already done it yesterday. They didn’t find anything wrong, so they’ve got no reason to think that they’ll _ever_ find anything wrong with it. It’s just a teen’s room after all.”

 

He strongly disagreed on a lot of levels, but he knew that no matter what anyone could tell her, not a single person in the universe would be able to change her mind.

 

“And hey, let’s be real. It’s a _“teenager ran away from home”_ case, not a murder case. They’re gonna focus a lot more on the outside than the inside.”

 

He honestly knew too little about US police procedures to care about retorting anything to that.

 

“Besides. Since when was Phoenix Wright legally allowed to investigate his crime scenes?”

 

Oh boy. No. “… Lys, this is real life. Not _Ace Attorney_.”

 

“I’ve played these games since I was six years old. Ace Attorney _is_ my life. Objection overruled.” He could practically hear her smirk when she was saying that, and that only made him face-palm once more. Then she added: “Also, I’m gonna need a sidekick.”

 

“ _Oi._ I’m older. Why do _I_ have to be the sidekick?”

 

“’Cause it’s hard for a detective to do any real work when he’s stuck thousands of miles away from the crime scene?”

 

“… Touché.” He didn’t know whether it was the ungodly hour and his sleeplessness or if he just wanted to goof off with her, but only then did he realize that he was playing along. As soon as he found his reason to do so, however, he did not mind nearly as much. “Besides, you’re right. I should be your sidekick. Sidekicks are the ones who keep the detective grounded and stop them from getting in trouble.” He paused for a single second, just so he could smile sassily: “… Whether with exterior forces or because they get their head stuck up their ass and forget how reality works.”

 

She snorted. “Dumbass.”

 

He smiled. “I’m trying.”

* * *

They kept chatting for another dozen of minutes, until Lys announced that she was about to arrive at Dawn’s flat and needed to hang up, if only temporarily.

Steven sighed heavily.

 

“Look, I know it’s already too late, but are you sure you should bother them _now_? I’m sure they’re busy with lots of other stuff.”

 

“Steven. I’m bringing info they’re gonna want to hear. And I want to clear things up.” she retorted. “Besides, I’d like to check on them, too. I’m worried about her mother, especially.”

 

 _This_ had him pause for a few painful seconds. He really didn’t like the sound of that last sentence.

 

He dared to ask. “… What _about_ her mother?”

 

“Well, how can I say this…” She clearly wasn’t at ease. “Just picture Toriel, I guess. Kinda.”

 

He raised a pair of skeptical eyebrows. “What do you mean by that? You mean the mother hen side or the ‘will shoot fireballs at you if you try to leave’ side?”

 

“The side where… Well, let’s say she’s had some… sad moments in her life. If Dawn doesn’t give us news quickly, I think there’s good reason to worry about her too. That’s why Charlie didn’t go back upstate yesterday. To keep an eye on her and make sure she’s not alone. Not that their dad approves, but I guess they thought it was better for Charlie to miss a few days of college than him slacking off from his job.”

… Oh boy. _That_ side. Yikes.

 

“Do you… know what happened?”

 

“You never wondered about the age gap between her children? Dawn’s pretty young compared to Charlie, don’t you think?” she asked somewhat rhetorically. “Well, eight years isn’t _that_ much, but…”

 

… That didn’t sound good at all. “What happened?”

 

“Dawn should’ve had an older sibling.”

 

He froze. Then shuddered. There was no need for details.

 

“Yeowch.” Very eloquent and tactful. Wow.

 

“Yeah. What you said.” Apparently she didn’t seem to have any better words to describe her thoughts on that situation herself. “Anyway. We all, just, really don’t want her to lose another child, right? And we don’t want her to… well, I’m not sure what she would or wouldn’t do, but let’s not take any risks. I hope bringing her some news on the case will at least give her some hope.”

 

That… certainly was a much better motivation for Lys to go check on them and tell them what she knew of the case. He still didn’t approve of her possibly going against the police’s recommendations because it could do nothing but slow everyone down, but… He could understand at least the frustration and pain that came from being left in the dark as to what was going on.

 

“One last thing.” Steven added firmly, but also with a speck of hesitation. “If things _do_ get serious… You’re gonna get into this seriously too, right?”

 

“Well _duh_.”

 

Yeah, pretty much what he feared. “Remember what Isabel said, okay? At least she’s got a sister and parents in the force and they’ll know what to do.”

 

There was an angry huff. “I don’t need to involve her. It’ll only bring more trouble.” was her immediate response. To be fair, he kind of agreed that letting both girls in a single conversation unsupervised was the best and fastest way to reinstate the Cold War in a matter of seconds, and possibly induce the Third World War soon after.

 

Everybody on the TVF forum and servers knew never to leave both BlueDoppler and Calliope Quill in the same chatroom or forum topic for more than forty-two seconds. Those who weren’t enjoying the drama and brought their metaphorical popcorn and 3D-glasses knew to fear the teens’ wrath. In retrospect, it was still kind of hilarious how nobody knew how it started, and that whenever one or the other was asked about it, it was clear that _even they_ could not remember at all when or why they started getting at each other’s throats and that asking them this question was hurting their pride because they were very well aware that they weren’t able to answer it properly, meaning that the only logical conclusion out of this was that their feud was absolutely meaningless and pettily stupid.

Speaking of Cold War, he started to wonder which side would be the equivalent of each country. The girls were both American, both buttheads in their own ways…

 

He remembered that Dawn had once found a trope name for their case. “Academic Alpha Bitch” was the universally agreed upon name for this type of character. The basic definition was something along the lines of “female control freak obsessed with having the best grades in class”, and at least so far, he had to admit that it was accurate for both girls: Lys was into science, Isabel into literature, languages and philosophy/psychology-related subjects. They were both top students in their own fields, and yet unable to compete with each other on a truly intellectual level.

 

In most, if not in all media he knew, there only ever was one character of that type at any given time in the entire series, or at least if a second one were to appear, it usually was a one-time only.

It was easy to realize why the universe was certainly meant to function so that there could only be _one_ “AαB” in the same location at any given time, for the sake of staying intact or not disrupting its balance or something. Having to deal with two of them on a daily basis, with both of them unable to compete in any regular field… It meant that whenever they disagreed on one thing (and they would disagree a lot), they _needed_ to find something to compete on, no matter how childish or blatantly irrelevant to the actual topic it was. Chaos and madness inevitably ensued.

 

Still. Nobody with an iota of common sense would dare call them “rivals” unless they had a death wish.

 

He sighed, having anticipated Lys’s pretty reasonable reaction (for once). But still, since she was going to get in trouble either way… He had to make his point. “I’m pretty sure you do. It’s better to involve her than to go in blind and get in trouble because you’re interfering with the force. She definitely knows stuff that neither you nor I know about how to handle this.”

 

There was a long, cold pause. Swiftly, Lys muttered one last _“I’ll see you later”_ , then hung up. Welp. He had planted the seeds, now all he had to do was hope that she’d make the right choices… rationally.

 

His options were now to either wait until she decided to call again, or listen to his exhaustion and go back to sleep… or go to sleep, period. He still didn’t feel like he would be able to actually close his eyes and drift away until morning came, though, so the “choice” was quickly taken.

After all, he never was a quitter. Even when it may be the best choice for the sake of his good health… He could never bring himself to let down someone in need.

Unless he was proven explicitly that doing so would lead to the best outcome in the long run, he could never give up.

* * *

Was it pushing it too far? Maybe. But she had to carefully look at the current situation from the right perspective: she wanted to be efficient, she needed to be confident, and everybody had to find the truth one way or another.

 

What was the one thing that taught her how to analyze mysteries and solve cases? The _Ace Attorney_ games were far from perfect, especially regarding the dubious legality in its protagonists’ actions; but there was one thing that nobody could deny: these games ruled. And their way of teaching kids how to use their brains instead of blindly jumping to conclusions was at the very least honorable.

Well, maybe not kids. She was probably the only kid who got to play this game _as_ a kid. But she was thankful for that. Critical thinking was the best thing for an individual to develop, as early as possible.

 

So what if these games weren’t suited for her young age? She survived and came out stronger.

 

(Maybe Dawn didn’t, though.)

 

So what if the concept was ridiculous if anybody were stupid enough to want to apply it to real life. Who cared? Her best friend since third grade was the victim of a case, and she was going to solve it no matter what, the only way she knew how.

 

She wouldn’t have to actually shout the words or pretend that the game mechanics would apply in real life and look like a complete lunatic. All she had to do was pretend, inside her mind, that this was how things could be ordered; it was a nice and engaging way of classifying the facts.

 

This would calm her and bring her to a situation she could relate to, so she would be equipped to solve this case with a cool head and a clear, acute mind.

The logic was what mattered.

 

Lys took one last, deep breath… then knocked. Surprisingly, the answer came fast; even more surprisingly, the one who answered was actually the mother herself.

 

“Oh… Good afternoon, Amaryllis.” She had a weak, but genuinely comforted smile. Apparently, coming for a visit could at least do that much on its own.

 

Normally she would have rolled her eyes and jokingly told her that she didn’t have to call her by her full name every time, that everybody had stopped doing so ages ago, except her dad because that was her dad and he was the one who had decided to choose such a convoluted name in the first place.

But… this time, she let it slide. It wasn’t like it mattered.

“I’m not coming at a wrong time, am I?” she asked politely. She had planned to pay them a visit no matter the circumstances, but you never knew.

 

“No, no. Of course not. Don’t worry, you’re always welcome here. You know that by now, don’t you?”

 

The tone wasn’t there, but the warmth in her words still betrayed the fact that she had actually tried to lighten the mood with a small joke of sorts. It wasn’t really too funny, but that was a start. At least her case wasn’t as desperate as she had feared.

 

“Just making sure.” she shrugged absent-mindedly before entering and closing the door behind her path.

 

The mother wordlessly guided her towards the living room, even though the teenager knew the place like the back of her hand. She offered her a glass of orange juice, not having asked her preference because she had known it for nearly a decade. Then…

 

“Amaryllis, dear…” She took a long, breathless sigh. “I can’t understand. Everybody says this is the moment in children’s lives when they want to be independent, or rebel, but…”

 

 _It wouldn’t be Dawn’s style. She would never be so straightforward,_ Lys thought for herself.

 

“You’re her best friend. You two are inseparable. You’re a teenager, too, now. So is there anything… Do you think you can understand what— why she would do something like this…?”

 

They still believed that Dawn had run away on her own volition. She should have expected, and yet, it still hurt that they would jump to conclusions like this.

The fair solution should be to tell her what she had found; that she was wrong; that Dawn had not abandoned them. But despite her entire body shaking with the urge to say it, she found herself wondering if this really was the best thing to do, at least for now.

After all, she really didn’t have that much proof, in the end. She had really just one clue: the fact that Dawn had tried to contact them at all, and how nonsensical it should be. It was enough proof to convince somebody who knew Dawn well enough, and it was definitely enough to convince someone in her family. But it probably wasn’t enough to convince the police just yet; it was enough to shade some doubt, but what would they do after that?

 

Even if she could prove that Dawn had been kidnapped with that little piece of evidence she had at this moment, there was no way of identifying who the kidnapper was from any of the clues they had gathered so far. There was no way of locating Dawn, especially now that her phone was out of reach.

 

The question that came after was…

What good could it do to a mother to tell her that her child had not run away, and that it was a kidnapping instead? Just looking at her face, she was broken enough as it was.

 

Heck. For all she knew, that single piece of evidence could be taken a completely different way — they could believe that Dawn had run away on her own, and then been abducted while she was already far away. That, at least, would perfectly explain why not a single trace of any outsider could be found in her room.

 

In the end, Lys found herself mumbling the first thing that came to her mind in order to answer the adult’s question: “I don’t know. But we’re gonna find out.”

* * *

Steven jolted back to consciousness when his cell phone started ringing and buzzing on top of his sleepy chest. Apparently he had actually dozed off… Surely Lys had taken her time to have some regular banter with the family, instead of jumping right into business. That was reassuring.

 

As usual, it was a WhatsApp call. Only when he answered did he realize that contrary to the last, time this one was a video call.

 

 _Glob damn it, Lys. You’re lucky I got dressed._

 

Second surprise, what he could see on the screen was a setup of Lys and Charlie sitting face to face, while also facing the phone’s camera. From what he could guess, the phone had been placed horizontally on a table or a shelf, in such way that it was forming a perfectly equilateral triangle along with Lys and Charlie’s positions.

 

Much less surprisingly, Lys was confidently sitting on her chair, her legs crossed, her spine straight, and with a pen and notebook in hand and ready to use. She didn’t seem to pay any attention to the camera, instead fully focused on the tall guy that was going to be her future “witness” to question; for that, he was thankful. She probably had loaded the video only so he could see the scene, more than the opposite. He quickly deactivated the video from his side, gaining full view of the scene that was occurring at the same time, but just about nine thousands of miles away from him. Neither of the two Americans seemed to mind, and he thought Charlie might have given the camera a small glance and given a small wordless nod that was supposed to mean either _“Smart move.”_ , or _“Thank God I won’t be distracted by this 4AM face all the way through, seriously dude just go find a hobby or go to sleep this gal is going to be the death of you one of these days, also your shirt is stupid.”_ All things considered, it probably was both.

 

On the other side of the planet, yet at the same time very close thanks to the wonders of technology, Lys clicked her tongue in order to bring all the attention back to her.

 

“So. We all have context, and we all know what we’re doing here. Any questions before we begin?”

 

“Just one thing.” Charlie went up immediately. “I advised Mom to go take a nice nap so she wouldn’t get involved. So don’t go do any crazy stuff, because she needs her sleep. Got it?”

 

“Understood.” the teen girl nodded firmly.

 

“Trust me, you don’t want to see my roommate at four a.m. I’m all for not waking him up either.”

 

“Good. Good.” There was a pause. Then a longer pause. Charlie pursed his lips awkwardly and turned towards Lys. “So, uh, what are you waiting for again?”

“Dawn called you, right?” the girl answered with a serious shrug. Yes, a serious shrug. Don’t ask how she pulled that off. “We just, want to know what she said and how it went, in as many details as possible. We’ll let you talk, we won’t interrupt, and then we’ll just share our thoughts when you’re done. Is that good?”

 

“Um. Okay, sure.” Charlie sent a questioning look at the phone’s camera, but he obtained from Steven no other answer than a silent non-committal sigh with a somehow audible eye-roll.

 

Lys smirked in anticipation, readying her pen and bringing her notebook closer.

 

# **_Witness  
Testimony_**

\-- Dawn’s WhatsApp Call --

 

So actually, I’m the one who called her. I was stalking her Discord because I had literally nothing better to do besides looking after my Mom.

And then at some point there’s this small thing— you know, the green dot. It goes up and proves that she’s online for the first time since she vanished.

She rejected the first call. But the second time I tried, she answered immediately. She must’ve already had her phone in her hands…

I have no idea why she’d reject the first call on purpose and then pick up the second time, though./span>

Maybe I took her off-guard. She looked like she hadn’t meant to answer the second one either.

\------------------------------------------

Charlie seemed to reach a pause, so Lys signed him to stop.

Judging by the black and messy state of her notebook’s current page, she had gathered enough data already to at least discuss what they had heard so far, and she probably planned on hearing the rest later.

 

For the time being, it was time to dig and read between the lines in order to see if there couldn’t be something more Charlie had inadvertently left out.

 

Like the games often repeated, witnesses did not always lie consciously. Charlie wouldn’t lie when his sister was at stake. But memory was a funny thing, and assumptions were easy to make; that, and it was just as easy to forget to mention the tiny details when you genuinely think they’re irrelevant… while they might be game changers.

 

That being said. It was time to get to the interesting part.

 

# **_Cross  
Examination_**

\-- Dawn’s WhatsApp Call --

 

“Okay so, first off.” Lys started. “What time was it?”

 

“Around ten, I think?” Charlie pulled out his phone and clicked a few virtual buttons, then corrected: “Hm. The call started at ten thirty-four. Guess I lost track of time. Spending all day at home will do that.”

 

The teen scribbled down all the additional information. She did not feel like she was truly able to deduce any specific meaning behind it, but she felt like there just might be something to it… Just maybe.

 

“There’s something I don’t understand.” Steven said soon after, audibly confused. “Dawn didn’t want to contact you?”

 

“She sure didn’t look at ease. She kept giving these worried looks, you know, the one she sends when she’s looking for someone’s approval or something.” Charlie’s expression suddenly became a bit smug. “That’s how I found out she wasn’t alone.”

There was a light, repeated noise when Lys’s pen fell off her hand and on the ground, then bounced on the parquet.

 

“You _SAW_ him?!”

 

“ _Quiet—!_ ” the elder hissed in a forced whisper. “People sleeping, remember?”

 

“S-sorry, but I— you— W-what did he look like?! Was it a man or a woman? Did you get to see a face?”

 

“Lys, he just said he knew she wasn’t alone.” Steven interrupted her. “It doesn’t mean that he got to—”

 

“Actually, he did show up on video at some point.” Charlie countered. “He even talked a bit— it was a man. He was wearing a costume and the video quality was terrible, though. I can’t really say I got to see his face for real.”

 

What came next in Lys’s mental recreation of an _Ace Attorney_ court trial was obvious and natural. She did not say the words out loud, but they nonetheless resonated in her mind by instinct.

“What kind of costume?” This was the first question, but she had many others to ask afterwards. This one simply was the first one to cross her mind.

 

“It was a Sans cosplay. Yes, the Sans from Undertale. Pretty realistic one, too… Or at least it looked good when the video quality was so low.”

 

Dawn being kidnapped by a guy in a Sans costume, right after she was trying to play Undertale…? Huh. Lys wrote that down as a coincidence, but it didn’t leave her mind. Maybe they would find more clues and prove that there actually was a true connection between the two.

 

“He talked to you?” Lys asked, not explicitly wording the question that came after but trusting Charlie to know what kind of answer she was really looking for.

“He went in when…”

 

Charlie seemed about to continue his sentence, but he paused and entered a somewhat tranced state, deep in thought. Apparently he had forgotten, or maybe not…

Understanding that he needed a quiet environment, both Lys and Steven made a wordless agreement not to say a word or even move until he could start talking again. Thankfully, after about a minute of silence, the young man’s efforts were successful.

 

“I think it was when I told Dawn that she couldn’t be kidnapped, because she wouldn’t be the one calling me if she were. That’s— that’s when he came in.”

 

A shiver ran down Lys’s spine.

 

“What did he say?”

 

“I think he took the phone from her, and then he said something like “that’s enough”, and then…” There was another silence. Charlie went back to staring at the void, deep in thought… and then a face-palm came crashing against his disappointed forehead. “… I interrupted him. He didn’t speak much after that. I think he said that we wouldn’t find them no matter how hard we tried, and he talked about California? And a mountain…? That’d explain the crappy reception.”

 

Lys’s pen danced again on her notebook, writing down as many details as she could even when she could not figure out their immediate relevance.

 

“About that reception problem.” Steven stated. “How bad was it?”

 

“ _Really_ bad. The kind of bad where you’d expect the call to start lagging and lose connection entirely any second. It didn’t, but it really had trouble keeping up, especially when Dawn went up the stairs.”

“She could walk around freely?” Lys asked, surprised.

 

“Yeah. It looked like they were in a basement when the call started, but at some point Dawn went up some stairs and ended up in a living room, I think.” Charlie paused again, once more trying to ensure that he was remembering things right. “She did tell me something about how she didn’t want to go outside, though. How she’d be dead if she went out.”

 

“So she _was_ restrained.”

 

“She was pretty chill for someone who wanted me to believe she was kidnapped.” the elder deadpanned. “She said lots of crazy stuff, but I didn’t see anything that made her worry. She didn’t seem to have any immediate threats around.”

 

Lys bit her lip, unconvinced.

It was time to show her trump card— which also was her one and only clue, all things considered.

“I didn’t get to tell you yet,” she apologized quickly, “but there’s something very weird that happened. You see, Dawn sent me a DM. To put it in your own words, the message was pretty chill, true. But then it ended abruptly, for no specific reason.”

 

If this were a true Ace Attorney trial, it was likely that this piece of evidence would be judged as invalid. However, fortunately for her, this wasn’t a trial. Any means were valid in order to find the truth.

 

As she thought more about the circumstances… A new idea germinated in her mind.

 

“In fact… Let’s not talk about the DM.” she decided, shutting down her phone’s screen and shoving it back in her pocket for emphasis. “Let’s talk about how your call ended. It had to end after all, right?”

“Well, yeah, it did when Dawn hung up on me.”

 

“How exactly did she hang up?” Steven asked. “I mean, was it the polite way or the “fuck this shit I’m out” way?”

 

“Uh… She said something like “I need to go” before hanging up, but I’d say the second option?”

 

“Do you know why she hung up like that?” she asked carefully.

 

“Because she didn’t want to talk anymore? It’s not like our conversation was going anywhere, anyway.”

 

Hmm. Speaking of conversations that went nowhere, she was getting the uncomfortable feeling that the one they were having right in this moment was much less filled with clues than she would have preferred. She kept in mind the fact that they did at least progress a bit in gathering the details of what had happened, but… There still wasn’t any concrete proof of anything, besides the fact that Dawn was in a house where they had little phone reception, and that she wasn’t alone.

 

Well. Charlie had given her _one_ more contradiction to work with, at least.

 

Lys shook her head. “Let’s be frank. If she didn’t want to talk to you at all and planned on hanging up, she would’ve done that as soon as possible. Except that she didn’t.” She raised a piercing glare at him, scanning for any emotions that could appear on his face during the next couple of seconds. “You’ve been able to talk to her for quite a while actually, right? So what changed? What happened that’d make her hang up all of a sudden?”

 

“I told you, I don’t know. It just went out of the blue, she got all worried and said that she had to go and after that, she wasn’t listening to me and hung up. That’s all I know.”

 

The one detail he gave certainly felt absolutely relevant to this case and incredibly important to mention.

“Charlie.” Steven went in before Lys could react. “What do you mean by “all worried”? If you weren’t the one making her worried, then…”

 

“I have no idea what caused it, sorry.” he apologized.

 

“But you saw how she reacted to it.” Lys countered. “Just tell us that.”

 

Charlie blinked. “Oh.” He face-palmed. “Sorry. Must be the coffee running out. Well, uh, I remember that even before that happened… She looked around a lot, she wanted to show me around a lot even if I couldn’t see much on the screen… and when she hung up, it looked like something was up— like she’d seen a ghost or something like that. Something showed up, most probably, and…”

 

A sudden shiver ran down his spine. At the time, he had been blinded by his frustration and exhaustion, and hardly even listened to what she was trying to say; and as a result, he hardly remembered as much as he should have.

But now… The images he had in his memory— were they distorted by his emotions? Were they overthinking it?

Or was Dawn really…?

 

Out of all the possible explanations for Dawn’s behavior, Lys immediately took the one that seemed the most obvious to her, albeit the least preferable one.

 

“What if she were at gunpoint? What if the guy who was with her made her hang up because she said something he didn’t want you to know? What if she just couldn’t be so straightforward with the truth because if she did, then he’d take action?”

 

Judging by Charlie’s ever paling face, not only had he not considered that option before, but he clearly did not want to consider it at all; yet all the possible irrational fears he could keep inside of him chose this moment to escape his subconscious and take over all his rationality.

Many of his sister’s words now resonated in his memory, sounding this time with a new meaning; one that should have been obvious, but that he had been blind to.

All due to him listening to his anger and frustration instead of letting her talk and gathering the obvious hints she was desperately sending him.

How alone had this made her feel…?

 

“There’s _got_ to be something that Dawn said that made the discussion turn around.” Lys continued, grave as ever and determined to go to the bottom of everything. “There’s something she said at that moment— that’s the evidence we need to prove what happened. Charlie, we _need_ to know!”

 

“I— I w-wasn’t paying attention at the time! I…” What _could_ he say? It seemed that the memories were slipping away, only leaving the guilt and anger. “I just assumed she ran away, and…” How stupid had he been? He had failed his sister when she needed him the most. “She’s in danger. Oh God. She’s in danger and I didn’t even take her seriously…”

 

Dawn’s best friend, who he had also let down, kept asking more questions. She deserved to know, but he couldn’t…

 

“Lys.” Steven called out. “There’s more urgent than figuring that out, right now. If Dawn’s really in trouble, we need to do something _now_.” The pause he maintained really lasted only one split second, just letting him inhale sharply: “Remember what we said about Isabel’s offer?”

 

The teenager’s shoulders slumped indignantly; but the lack of verbal answer proved that she could not deny that he was right, and that she secretly agreed; or wanted to agree more than her resentment against a certain person let her.

 

“Look. You go and tell Dawn’s parents what you found, and I’ll go tell Isabel. No matter what the police does, Isabel can only bring you even more clues and advice on what to do, so you need to meet up. We _have_ to tell her about this. Okay?”

 

There was a silence. After a second, Lys stood up.

 

“Fine.” She sighed; but as soon as her eyes opened again, a resolved fire burned in her glare. “For Dawn.”

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took forever for a number of reasons. One of them is a problem that I was in the end incapable of addressing at all besides blink-and-you'll-miss-it references: the fact that Steven is a fan of Homestuck, as much as Lys is a fan of Ace Attorney. He's much less obsessed with it than Lys is obsessed with the AA games, but I figured that it's still an important part of his character, so... welp. I guess the reason why it wasn't portrayed as much is because it just doesn't have any reason to show up given how the story goes, but still, since it was in the preview images and this chapter was supposed to sort of focus on Steven's character... I sort of wish I could've hidden at least one or two more references. It doesn't help that I'm not that much of a fan of Homestuck myself, though. It's hard to make references to that you don't know much about yourself.
> 
> About Ace Attorney, on the other hand, I guess I owe everyone who doesn't know these games at all an apology, because wow things went completely overboard. In my defense, just as much as including Homestuck wasn't very relevant to this chapter's story, Ace Attorney was on the contrary probably a little bit _too_ relevant to the direction this chapter was taking.  
> Ace Attorney was never the One Fandom I was Into, at any point in my life ~~(Professor Layton was, during my teen years)~~ ; however... It really is just that great! I've been rewatching a few no-commentary playthroughs on YouTube, and man did I have a good time reminiscing all the stuff I had forgotten about the stories and cases.  
> So, I guess I grew nostalgic. Back in the old version of this fanfic, back in 2016, Learn When to Quit was supposed to be one crossover story out of a dozen others, all set in one gigantic multiverse a little bit like how they're doing now with the Marvel universe; and most notably, the world of Undertale was supposed to be set in the exact same universe as Ace Attorney, because back in that time, it allowed me to tie up quite a few loose ends regarding Frisk's backstory, for example. Maybe I'll give you more details about that another time, in the next Weekly Update or something. It depends on how much Ace Attorney lore you're interested in digesting for the sake of digging up old facts about this fanfic's embarrassing first version ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Anyway, let me reassure you: the current 2019 version of this fanfic is 100% about Undertale, and the only importance Ace Attorney has in this story is just that Lys is obsessed with it, nothing more. I still kind of regret not being able to keep that crossover idea because there were a _lot_ of plot/character opportunities I loved with it... But I feel that this story makes a lot more sense if it remains purely Undertale-related. Besides, the way this plot is conveyed is convoluted enough as it is xD

**Author's Note:**

> If you're enjoying your read, if you have questions, or if there are some things you disagree with, don't hesitate to let me know! Also, if you're interested in seeing other content related to this story, like fanarts or extra info, [there's an independent tumblr blog all about this story's universe](https://lwtq-undertale.tumblr.com/).  
> I'm also very active on Discord and I love chats, so you can always come and say hi!
> 
> Additionally, please check the side work [Learn When to Quit Writing Bonus Chapters](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20399851) for new content related to this story's universe on a regular basis! Weekly news and updates on how the next chapter's redaction is going, occasional bonus chapters about cut scenes, and fanart/comics will welcome you there! This One-Shot collection of sorts is meant to be a way to further interact with you readers, as well as mostly just have fun giving you more content about this story's characters and whatnot. Most of what you see there is 100% canon, too!


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